New Home Builders

[BlueClouds]

Jgo1985-
Thanks for sharing your experience with Highland Homes. This is helpful.

TX Rover-
Yes, excellent idea to add the foundation inspection.

[homeinatx]

Frankly, I would avoid any house that was built in Central Texas in the last two years. COVID decimated the construction industry. When the Dell medical school belatedly started tracking occupational data, construction workers had 3 x the rate of hospitalization of any other sector. Whatever was built was either built by sick people or radically unskilled labor, i.e. anyone builders could find and that includes inspectors. And then global supply issues meant that quality control in terms of materials entirely collapsed. Builders abandoned any idea of quality and simply built with whatever they could find, regardless of value. You would be better off buying almost any house that was built between 1860 and 2019 than anything that was thrown by unskilled workers working with substandard materials in the last two years. Even high end custom builders cut every corner they could, and tract house construction is/was the worst in Austin's history and then tight inventory meant that everything was over-priced. I would not TOUCH a house built after 2019.

[done working]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

Frankly, I would avoid any house that was built in Central Texas in the last two years. COVID decimated the construction industry. When the Dell medical school belatedly started tracking occupational data, construction workers had 3 x the rate of hospitalization of any other sector. Whatever was built was either built by sick people or radically unskilled labor, i.e. anyone builders could find and that includes inspectors. And then global supply issues meant that quality control in terms of materials entirely collapsed. Builders abandoned any idea of quality and simply built with whatever they could find, regardless of value. You would be better off buying almost any house that was built between 1860 and 2019 than anything that was thrown by unskilled workers working with substandard materials in the last two years. Even high end custom builders cut every corner they could, and tract house construction is/was the worst in Austin's history and then tight inventory meant that everything was over-priced. I would not TOUCH a house built after 2019.

and where or what sources do you have to prove your statement?

if not provided is just another post spouting off

[cheeva]

Originally Posted by done working

and where or what sources do you have to prove your statement?

if not provided is just another post spouting off

A case could be made for the opposite: lack of work meant that you got the best contractors.

What about the $1M+ custom/high end homes with weekly inspections of material and workmanship with additional overlay of owner QC during the build?

That's happening right now too all over Rollingwood, Westlake, Barton Creek and out to Bee Caves/Lakeway. It's just not happening in areas dominated with production builders, and cheap spec infill like Pflugerville or East Austin.

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by done working

and where or what sources do you have to prove your statement?

if not provided is just another post spouting off

Spouting off is a time-honored CD tradition. LOL.

There is a ton of serious research documenting the the impact of the disruption of global supply chains due to COVID on many industries. Construction is invariably one of the most affected.

And the disproportionate hospitalization of Austin's construction workers is well-documented.

https://news.utexas.edu/2020/10/29/c...ction-workers/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/writt...supply-chains/

https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/n...steel-how.html