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 feature articles.
New Years' resolutions for construction managers — Jan. 5
2016 is here, and that means the annual tradition of setting New Year's resolutions. We're veering from the typical resolutions most people list during the first week of the New Year and creating our list for construction managers. Check back on Tuesday, Jan. 5 for our collection of New Year's resolutions we think industry professionals should consider as we plow ahead into 2016.
CoreLogic Home Price Index — Jan. 5
CoreLogic will release its November Home Price Index on Tuesday, Jan. 5. Last month, CoreLogic announced home prices rose 1.0% between September and October and 6.8% between October 2014 and October 2015. The gains came as a surprise, as CoreLogic — in its report the previous month — had predicted prices would slightly fall in October.
CoreLogic economists cited limited available inventory and strong demand from buyers as the main factors contributing to rising prices, and they said those trends are expected to continue into 2016. In its November report, CoreLogic also predicted home prices would rise a slight 0.1% between October and November.
Rising home prices and affordability concerns continue to plague the housing market. In its housing report last month, Zillow predicted the market will be defined by "deteriorating housing affordability" in 2016. Will Tuesday's report affirm CoreLogic's prediction of a welcome slowdown in prices?
Megaprojects feature article — Jan. 7
The construction industry is seeing an increasing number of megaprojects that are "bigger and more complicated than they've ever been," according to Dan McQuade, group president of construction services for construction giant AECOM, during the Dodge Executive Outlook Conference. As a result of these megaprojects, McQuade pointed to three emerging trends in the industry, including global collaboration, investing capital with clients as partners, and better collaboration with vendors and manufacturers.
Along with those megaprojects comes the trend of more joint ventures among multiple construction companies. In our feature article on Thursday, Jan. 7, we will explore this trend and the role each company plays in the JV, including the use of combined bonding capacity and finances, taking advantage of each company's subs and supplier connections in certain geographic areas, and collaboration between companies that are strong in different areas.
