Source: National Association of Home Builders

Sales of newly built, single-family homes fell 7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 414,000 units in December, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite the monthly drop, home sales in 2013 were up 16.4 percent over the previous year.

Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Housing starts in Canada were trending at 195,760 units in December compared to 196,430 in November, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR)1 of housing starts.

Source: National Association of Home Builders

According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the Remodeling Market Index (RMI) held steady at 57 in the fourth quarter of 2013. This is the same level as the third quarter of 2013 and the highest reading since the first quarter of 2004.

Source: Woodworking Network    By Michaelle Bradford 

A  U.S. hardwood plywood manufacturers group filed an appeal Jan. 17 of the U.S. Court of International Trade's (ITC) ruling that dismissed their antidumping petition against imported Chinese hardwood plywood.

Source: NAHB       By David Crowe

Housing data for the end of 2013 cap off a year of post-recession growth. While construction activity remains below normal levels of production, the expansion experienced last year produced jobs and business growth. Yet headwinds remain in the form of rising materials costs and policy risk.

Source: Reed Construction Data   By Alex Carrick

One can agonize over the poor results from the labor force surveys in both the U.S. and Canada for December 2013, but there were some fascinating wrinkles nonetheless.

source: Woodworking Network

The Honourable Joe Oliver, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, today announced a new investment to support Canada's forest products market development office in Mumbai. Forest Innovation Investment India (FII India) is helping Canada to expand its forest product trade with India by identifying new opportunities for Canadian wood products and building local relationships. Minister Oliver made the announcement following a roundtable with forest industry stakeholders at the FII India office in Mumbai.

Source: National Association of the Remodeling Industry

The National Association of the Remodeling Industry’s (NARI) fourth-quarter Remodeling Business Pulse (RBP) data of current and future remodeling business conditions continues to show growth. Although remodelers report the highest overall rating on business conditions, at 6.51 (from 6.41 last quarter), numbers in most other categories experienced a slight drop.

Source: National Association of Home Builders

Following an unusual surge in housing starts in November, nationwide housing production fell 9.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000 units in December, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Source: Business Wire

Masonite International Corporation ("Masonite") announced preliminary results for the full year and the fourth quarter ended December 29, 2013.