The annual “State of Home Spending” report shows increased spending on home improvement projects in 2023 and explores key home improvement trends Overall spend on home improvement grew 6% to ...
Economic Trends
What Will Mortgage Rates Do Next? History Offers Some Clues
Key Takeaways: This is the first time in over 40 years that mortgage rates – after controlling for inflation - have been negative.Inflation is 9.1%, nearly twice as high as 5.5% mortgage ...
What’s Next for Inflation? 4 Things Skilled Trades Pros Need to Know
Key Takeaways: Inflation varies a lot depending on the product, even with the same category of projects. For example, since the onset of the pandemic asphalt shingle prices have increased 8%, while ...
Update: Now Continues to be the Least Affordable Time to Buy a Home in Recent History
As interest rates for mortgages continue to rise, so does the comparative advantage of staying in place and remodeling vs. buying a new home. Key Takeaways: Controlling for hourly wage rates, a ...
Residential Trades Employment and Wages are Both Up Despite Shrinking GDP
Key Takeaways Even though real GDP contracted in the first quarter triggering recession fears, residential specialty trades contractor employment stayed even month over month and is 5% higher than ...
Now Is the Worst Time to Buy a Home in the Last 15 Years
Key Takeaways 30-year mortgage rates rose to 5.11% for the first time in over a decade The combined cost of a home – base price and mortgage rate – has produced the highest lifetime cost on ...
20% Growth in 2021 Home Service Spending as Americans Adjust to a New Normal
Angi’s 2021 State of Home Spending Report finds 20% year-over-year growth in home services spending. This week we released our annual report examining the behavior of households spending on ...
A Lesson from the July Jobs Report: Consider a Career in the Trades
Where does the economy stand with Covid-19 Delta variant cases spiking, inflation higher than expected, and the housing and home services markets continuing to boom? If July’s labor market report ...
Residential Trades Employment is Already 4% Higher than the Start of the Pandemic
Residential building jobs, which track closely with home service employment and act as part of the training pipeline for new home service workers, are now up 4% since the start of the Covid-19 ...
Do We Need A Permanent Shift in Service Employment?
Employment in January grew by a disappointing 49,000 new jobs to a total of 142.6 million. Average monthly job growth absent a global pandemic would typically be 300-400% higher and average job ...