Home Builders

Townhome Construction

by Brandon Bidwell

Townhome construction has surged in the last 12 months. This is welcome news for first-time buyers who benefit from the lower prices that multi-family product tends to provide.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, townhome construction has jumped up 28% compared to the previous year.

Townhomes now represent 13% of all new residential construction starts.

Homebuilder Headaches

by Brandon Bidwell

The National Association of Home Builders recently surveyed their members to ask them about the challenges they currently face and the challenges they expect to face.

Far and away, the biggest headache for homebuilders right now is the rising cost of building materials.

96% of the survey respondents cited this as a significant problem they faced in 2020 and 89% believe it will be a significant problem this year.

It turns out that builders are not only concerned about building material costs, but also the availability of those materials.

78% said availability was a significant problem last year and 80% said that it will be a significant problem in 2021.

Due to increasing materials costs, we notice builders locally having to raise their base prices significantly in order to keep up with rising costs.

All Time High

by Brandon Bidwell

Home Builder’s confidence in Baby Boomer buyers is at an all time high.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) surveys their members each quarter to discover what they expect of future sales.

The builders base a large part of their answer on how many people are visiting their sales centers and model homes versus the same time last year.

The results in their most recent survey show that builders have never been more confident about buyers who are 55 and older.

The confidence index for this age group is actually double of what it was in 2012. The NAHB sites low interest rates and strong job growth as the reasons for the high confidence.