As home builders are purchasing more and more house plans online at sites like The Plan Collection, people are beginning to realize that this fact is actually offering early insights into upcoming home design trends and consumer preferences.
It appears that with marked improvements in consumer confidence and home buying – especially in the single family housing market – more Americans are choosing to purchase their house plans online, an easy place to search for plans of popular and modern homes or renovations.
Higher mortgage rates in recent months may have briefly spooked multi-family construction, but consumer spending on the web continues to see double digit growth. And hitting a seven year high this month, construction starts in June 2013 were up by double digit percentages compared to a year ago.
What’s more, e-commerce spending in the United States will hit approximately $262 billion this year, up 13.4 percent from $231 billion a year ago, according to May 2013 Forrester Research.
Despite bumps along the way, we are now seeing a rate of 591,000 seasonally adjusted single family housing starts for June 2013 – an 11.5 percent increase versus June 2012 – and a rate for single family building permits of 624,000 for June 2013 – an increase of 24.6 percent versus June 2012 – (Source: Construction report for June 2013 from the U.S. government.)
Overall housing starts in June 2013 were down 9.9 percent as compared to a month ago. Â
The February Ellie Mae Originations Report states that home mortgage approval rates are also up quite a bit. There’s a pretty strong financial picture for the average American family who is applying for a home loan.  Don’t forget, mortgage approval rates are up nearly 20 percent.
