Each Monday, we'll let you know what's coming in the week ahead, including important residential and commercial report releases, as well as our own feature articles.
Workers' compensation fraud feature article — Jan. 26
Workers' compensation fraud has been creeping into the headlines lately, especially in the construction industry. These cases involve everything from misclassifying workers to pay a lower premium, to paying employees through one-man shell companies.
In our feature article on Tuesday, Jan. 26, we'll take a look at the various schemes of employers, employees and even health care providers. We ask the experts to find out if this kind of fraud is on the rise and what insurers, law enforcement and employers are doing to crack down on perpetrators in the industry.
New home sales — Jan. 27
The Commerce Department will release new home sales data for December on Wednesday, Jan. 27. Last month, the department announced new home sales jumped by 4.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 490,000 in November.
A MarketWatch survey had forecast a rate of 505,000, just 15,000 shy of the November rate. However, Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, wrote that the data continue to show improvement.
So far, housing market reports for this month have been promising. Homebuilder confidence remained at a score of 60, housing starts dipped a slight 2.5%, and existing home sales soared 14.7%.
Will Wednesday's results continue the string of mostly positive residential reports?
Pending home sales — Jan. 28
The National Association of Realtors will announce December's pending home sales results on Thursday, Jan. 28. Last month, the NAR reported pending sales dipped 0.9% in November to a rate of 106.9.
The NAR cited the ongoing problems of rising home prices and limited home inventory as the drivers behind the decline in pending home sales. "Home prices rising too sharply in several markets, mixed signs of an economy losing momentum and waning supply levels have acted as headwinds in recent months despite low mortgage rates and solid job gains," NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in a release.
Will Thursday's release show a rebound in pending home sales, or will affordability concerns continue to plague the market?
3-D laser scanning feature article — Jan. 28
Although BIM tends to dominate the construction technology narrative, experts have pointed out another emerging technology that is having a significant impact on the industry: laser scanning. 3-D laser scanners can create a digital reproduction of the dimensions and positions of objects in a certain space, and then turn that information into a point cloud image.
Construction companies are increasingly using 3-D laser scanning technology to produce and verify as-built drawings (before a renovation project and during/after new construction); import building data into CAD and BIM programs; and ensure that a project is on track and being built as specified.
In our feature article on Thursday, Jan. 28, we delve into this emerging trend and ask industry insiders what they predict for the future of the technology.
