Chief executives for four leading door, window and hardware companies remain optimistic about demand for their companies’ products, despite what some describe as a “weak” housing market and sentiments about a possible economic slowdown. New home starts increased in July after declining in June, despite increases to interest rates that brought mortgage rates near a […]

High construction costs and elevated interest rates continue to hamper housing affordability, but March had builders showing a “cautious optimism,” as demand shifts to the new home market. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes in March rose two points to 44, according to the most recent National Association of Home Builders […]

February opened on a week of mixed feelings for attendees of the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) International Builders Show (IBS). With more than 110,000 professionals cross pollenating between IBS and the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, the scene was busy and jubilant—marking Design & Construction Week’s largest attendance ever. “I’ve been to more […]

I just had dinner with a customer who was eager to talk about the state of the economy. “What is happening to business?” he asked. “I have not seen it this slow in some time! What is going on? We need to discuss the state of the economy and what I need to do to […]

Forecasts are tough. Don’t you just love it when the weatherman calls for a 50% chance of rain? How can he be right? How can he be wrong? So, let’s talk about the forecast for the door and window industry. Overall, 2022 proved to be a very good year with most door and window fabricators […]

In talking to my customers, business in November is just like any other November. In other words, it has been very busy up until Thanksgiving, but since the turkey was cooked it’s been more like “Tanksgiving.” During the past two years, business was not seeing the normal holiday slowdown as door and window manufacturers were […]

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) points to continued elevated interest rates, high building material costs and declining affordability conditions pushing buyers to the sidelines as the source of the continued drag on builder sentiment. NAHB recorded the lowest confidence reading since June 2012 with the exception of the onset of the pandemic in […]

Many window manufacturers are reporting that sales are slowing down. The last few years we really didn’t have to worry about demand. We had other things to deal with like supply chain. Now, many fabricators are finally seeing a slowdown and are feeling uncertain about 2023. Well, when it comes to demand, it would be […]

According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) builder sentiment fell for the 10th straight month in October and traffic of prospective buyers fell to its lowest level since 2012 (excluding the two-month period in the spring of 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic). The association attributes the […]

Can you afford to take time away to go to upcoming trade shows? Well, most of my customers are still as busy as ever, despite the slowdown in new construction and thanks to backorders. But unfortunately, due to inflation and higher interest rates, a slowdown is just on the horizon. Holiday spending will be more […]