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Visiting this week... Noticed some lots for sale in nice subdivisions around with no homes built on them yet. Why not? People not building and homes not moving still?
Two things going on:
First, when the market crashed, new home building came to a screeching stop. Bank were not lending on new construction no matter how much money you had to put down, your credit, or how much land you owned outright. They were not handing out loans. Period. That has only recently started to change.
Second, no one wants to go first. The first houses that go in can set the tone for the neighborhood so people often want to see what's going in before they build. No one wants to build a 3,000 sq/ft arts and crafts and then all of the neighbors that come after you build an 1,800 sq/ft traditional. You don't want the biggest home in the neighborhood. It can hurt your value
No builders want to build some specs? Certainly with WNC's popularity they will go quickly. I thought the area was really desirable, I was just shocked to see hardly any new construction going on, I'm wondering how many make a living building homes there.
No builders want to build some specs? Certainly with WNC's popularity they will go quickly. I thought the area was really desirable, I was just shocked to see hardly any new construction going on, I'm wondering how many make a living building homes there.
The issue is jobs. As I pointed out on another thread (somewhat unsuccessfully to some) the area's job sector isn't very large and the demand for living in the area far outpaces the number of suitable jobs required for most to live in new construction housing. Also bear in mind despite a large retiree population they're most likely not looking to build at that stage of their life. I would guess that without some major job creation that the area has most likely reached it's apex in terms of growth.
The easy money's just not there anymore like it used to be. Lots of people lost the leverage of home equity during the housing bust, especially in the south FL market. As a result, those folks just aren't moving here and building like they used to.
I'm going to throw out an idea. What if the lack of new home construction has to do with the abundance of existing homes? What if it is a cultural shift to move towards renovating current homes as opposed to using up depleting resources to construct new ones? I don't know, just a thought. There seems to be a lot of these "sustainable resource" type people in the area so maybe that has a lot to do with it.
There are 9 houses within .5 mile of me for sale and the prices have all been reduced, some by a lot, as in 40%. Sure you can say they were priced too high, but there is a 1+ AC lot for sale in Champion Hills for $15K, reduced from $18.5K because they could not sell it at that price. I looked at the lot and it is not a steep lot and there are houses on both sides.
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