With lumber and other materials costs rising, new home construction is expected to slow in coming years, according to a Zillow survey of economists and other real estate experts.
The Zillow panel expects new housing starts to end the year 2.5% below December 2020 levels on average. By the end of 2022, they are expected to fall another 2%. Not surprisingly, panelists cited the high cost of labor, materials and land as the biggest challenges for home builders.
Lumber, for instance, has been a huge issue. Earlier this year, the National Association of Home Builders said that lumber prices, which are triple what they were in April 2020, increased the cost of an average single-family home construction by nearly $36,000.
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Leslie Shaver
Les Shaver has been covering commercial and residential real estate for almost 20 years. His work has appeared in Multifamily Executive, Builder, units, Arlington Magazine in addition to GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum.
