What's next for US housing
The past two US housing starts reports have missed estimates and lumber prices have fallen dramatically but the overall picture on US housing is uncertain.
The pandemic sparked a desire for more space and prompted an exodus from the biggest cities. Remote work isn't going away and the US has suffered from a decade of under-building.
In the short-term, home builder Lennar expressed confidence in high demand in today's earnings report.
tuart Miller, Executive Chairman said in the release "The housing market has proven to be robust in the current environment and we expect it to continue to be a significant driver in the recovery of the overall economy."
In the call today, the company said demand has continued to strengthen.
Importantly, the company highlighted that higher construction costs aren't a significant headwind. They boosted guidance on gross margins to between 27.0% - 27.5% and reported that net margin was a record 18.5% in Q2.
The takeaway here is that the US homebuilding boom still has a lot of runway and that will be a tailwind for the economy and commodity prices.
