The residential segment was supported in large part by the housing market boom. Despite supply chain and labor issues, new home starts rose for the 12th consecutive year and were at their highest point since 2006, according to the US Census Bureau. The 1.6 million units started in 2021 represented a 16% gain over the 1.38 million total from 2020. Single-family starts in 2021 totaled 1.12 million, up 13.4% from the previous year, while multi-family starts in 2021 grew 22.1% compared to the previous year, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
The bulk of the resilient category’s activity was driven by residential LVT (including glue-down, flexible click, loose lay, SPC, WPC and a relatively new sub-segment called mineral core), which generated an estimated $5,785 billion in 2021, versus $4,177 billion in 2020. That’s a gain of 38.5%. In terms of volume, residential LVT accounted for 3.417 billion square feet, up from 2.835 billion square feet in 2020 for an increase of 20.5%.
Two housing market segments continued to help drive that growth exponentially: residential remodel and single-family new construction. Suppliers agreed single-family was the shining star in 2021. “Obviously, during the market expansion, interest rates remain relatively low, which makes new housing and that segment of our business in particular very, very ripe for growth,” Shaw Industries’ Francis said. “New home construction, [throughout 2021]continued to have double-digit growth quarter over quarter.”
Nate Hohenstein, director of strategic accounts, Novalis, added that the large increase in home prices as well as the competitive nature of the buyer’s market caused two direct factors that influenced the flooring segments the most. “No. 1,” he said, “people didn’t want to overspend on homes, so they chose in many cases to remodel/renovate their own homes—in many cases taking advantage of interest rates and refinancing to do so. In other cases, where people did sell, they chose not to repurchase but to rent instead. This drove up the higher-end rental market and caused more renovation to be done in that space.”
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