Business View - March 2015 21
buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very
low.” Scores for each component are then used to cal-
culate a seasonally adjusted index where any number
over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions
as good than poor.
Two of the three HMI components posted losses in
March. The component gauging current sales con-
ditions fell three points to 58 while the component
measuring buyer traffic dropped two points to 37.
The gauge charting sales expectations in the next six
months held steady at 59.
Looking at the three-month moving averages for re-
gional HMI scores, the Northeast and South each
posted a two-point drop to 43 and 55, respectively.
The Midwest rose two points to 56, while the West fell
seven points to 61.
New Study Allows Builders to Compare Employee Com-
pensation
A newly released publication from BuilderBooks, the
book publishing arm of the National Association of
Home Builders (NAHB) gives homes builders an in-
side look at building industry employee compensation
trends across the country.
The 2014 Single-Family Builder Compensation Study
provides compensation and benefits data for 39 com-
mon positions at single-family home building compa-
nies including Controller, Director of IT, Estimator and
Office Manager.
The study, which was based on data collected in July
from builders across the country, is divided into two
sections that present the survey findings from differ-
ent perspectives. The first section provides a broad
view of the full-time positions that currently exist at
single-family building companies, as well as a com-
parison of average total compensation and benefits
across positions. The second part of the study offers a
more detailed view of each individual position’s aver-
age compensation and benefits.
Builders can use the results to benchmark what they
pay their employees against current industry averag-
es. The study shows average total compensation and
the prevalence of benefits offered to each position by
John Grau,
NECA’s CEO
CONSTRUCTION
