NAHB reported this month that shortages have eased for many building materials, although availability for products in several categories, including HVAC equipment, has slightly worsened since 2021.
The following article is as posted January 17, 2023 at builderonline.com.
The shortages of building materials have improved in most categories since the historically widespread shortages as recently as May 2021, according to an NAHB analysis. Despite the improvement, several categories—including HVAC equipment, ceramic tiles, clay bricks, and cement-based building materials—have gotten slightly worse since the shortages experienced in the middle of 2021.
NAHB has been tracking shortages of building materials and products since the 1990s through special questions on the survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), most recently in October of 2022. At that time, over 80% of single-family builders reported either a serious or some shortage of three categories of building products: appliances (88%), transformers (86%) and windows & doors (83%).
Shortages of HVAC equipment were also relatively widespread in October, reported by 76% of single-family builders. Overall, half or more of all builders reported shortages of 17 of the 25 building products listed in the October 2022 survey.
Although these shortages may seem severe and broad-based, they are generally not as severe as they were the last time NAHB collected similar information in May 2021. Between then and October of 2022, the incidence of the shortage fell for 18 of the 24 listed products and materials (transformers were not covered in the 2021 survey). The decline in the share of builders reporting a shortage ranged from 3 percentage points (from 63% to 60%) for cabinets to a massive 59 points (from 92% to 33%) for OSB.
For additional information on this topic, including a breakdown by category, click here.