THE BYTE

Welcome to the BYTE, where we serve up the latest home and tech news from the last week for you to sink your teeth into.

This week we’re taking a BYTE out of the latest housing numbers, what goes into homes, new public transit, what the kids want, and digital transformation. Dig in! 

Generally

The State of Housing
Single-family housing starts are up and multi-family starts are down. Residential permits are booming in the West.

Let’s Break It Down
Overall housing starts are down from March to April, but mainly because of a large drop in multi-housing starts. Even with this dip, housing starts are still up 10.5% from April 2017, with housing starts at 1.29 million in April 2018 versus the 1.17 million in April 2017. As for single family permits, compared to this time last year, we are up 6%. For multi-family permits, we are up 8.5% compared to 2017. The western U.S. is driving a lot of this growth in both single and multi-family housing. Idaho recorded the highest growth for single family permits with a 42.3% increase from last year. Rhode Island led the way for multi-housing permits with a 1,225% increase.

Expensive Bones

Bank of America Merrill Lynch took a look at the average prices of the products that went into building a new home to examine the rising cost of homes. They looked at 14 major categories including plumbing, cabinets, drywall, and foundation. It was found that the average single family new home has $80,566 worth of materials. On average the materials account for about 25% of the sale price of a new house, so the average price of a home should have been around $322,264 which is very close to actual median sale price of 2017, $321,000. The analysis estimates the annual growth rate of these materials to be 3.6% YoY, so don’t expect to see savings from these areas anytime soon.

Take Notes

$1
Elon Musk was recently interviewed about his new public transit system being built under LA. When asked how much the fare costs would be, he said downtown LA to LAX would cost $1. He wants to move away from roads so there is no longer a need to divide communities with lanes. If the project is successful and fares are that affordable, it could totally alter how communities are built. To view the whole 1 hour info session on his Boring Company, check it out here.

For The Kids
Having kids is a major reason people buy a home, but how much of a say does that child get in the new home? According to a new study, 55% of buyers with a child said that their child’s opinion was a factor in their home buying decision. For millennials, the children influence was at 74%. Children had different priorities than the parents for their new home. The top three most important things for the kids were: having their own bedroom, large backyards, and the proximity to parks.

DCX
If you missed our digital transformation summit DCX, or if you simply want to re-watch the amazing speakers from the event, then your time has come! Presentations from the #BDXSummit are up on our Builder University for you to watch, learn from, and share. Hear from amazing brands such as Southwest, Zappos, Bazaarvoice, and more!

Totally Unrelated

Beautiful
4K TVs are cool, but when will we get a 12K TV to really show off this amazing aerial view of New York City?