I keep up with Eric Arnum's well-researched newsletter, Warranty Week, and their recent findings suggest that warranty claims are at an all time high for home building suppiers such as HVAC, appliances, fixtures and building materials. Not only are claims at their highest rates but the manufacturers are also anticipating higher costs as most manufacturers in his survey increased their accrual rates.
Eric Arnum observes "But building activity, or at least the repairs and warranty work that results from building activity, is by our measurement at an all-time high. Chalk it up to labor rate increases, commodity inflation, Chinese drywall problems, currency exchange rate chaos, product quality declines, sunspots, hurricanes, or stimulus spending, if you must. But the fact remains that this select group of warranty providers paid out more in claims this spring than they ever have before."
In late September Warranty Week completed a survey of new home builders that will also be of interest as it was here they "suggested that an upturn in the amount of warranty claims paid by new home builders could signal that a bottom had at long last been reached in that sector".
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