New Construction - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

New Home Inventory at 20-Year Low

Builders failed to ramp up inventories last month, despite increasing demand from home buyers and calls from the real estate industry. New-home construction dropped 4.8 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.16 million units, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Commerce Development reported Wednesday.Single-family production fell 0.5 percent month over month in July to an adjusted annual rate of 856,000. Th

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July housing starts take turn for the worse

Housing shortage in America might intensify, says NAR chief economistKey Takeaways In July, new residential construction starts slipped down to a rate of 1,223,000 units -- a 4.1 percent month-over-month decrease.June’s housing starts report was heralded as “welcome news” by National Association of Realtors (NAR) Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, who said increasing residential construction was the key to lowering home prices.This month, howeve

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4 Ways to Cut Kitchen Remodeling Costs

Kitchen remodels don’t come cheap. The average cost to update a 200-square-foot kitchen—including installing new flooring, semicustom wood cabinets, and standard appliances—is a whopping $62,000, according to Remodeling Magazine. Homeowners who want to add in more luxurious touches, such as stone countertops, a commercial-grade cooktop, designer faucets, and top-of-the-line custom cabinets, may pay as much as $123,000.Before your clients

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Why You Won’t See Many New Starter Homes

Starter homes are harder to come by as builders struggle to offer more entry-level real estate options amid higher construction costs, a new study shows. Just 16 percent of new homes are selling for under $200,000, down from 44 percent in 2010, according to an analysis by research firm John Burns Real Estate Consulting.The share of new homes priced between $200,000 and $400,000 has increased to 55 percent from 43 percent in 2010, and the share ab

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Builder Shortage Is Getting Worse

The inventory of for-sale homes has struck a 20-year low. And while economists and the public cry for more inventory, many builders are pressed to meet demand. A labor and subcontractor shortage in the building industry has worsened over the past year, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index survey of single-family builders.Builders reported widespread shortages for each of the 15 occupations su

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New-Home Sales Are High, But They Could Be Higher

New-home sales inched up 0.8 percent in June, but sales would be higher if there were more new homes to sell. Sales of newly built single-family homes reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 units in June, according to a joint report released by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.“While new home inventory rose slightly in June, it remains tight as builders face lot and labor shortages and in

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Best Year for New Construction in a Decade?

A shortage of homes for sale combined with growing buyer demands will likely spark home builders to construct the most homes this year than in the last decade, economists told HousingWire.“Most likely a result of the trending imbalance between homes for sale and demand for new homes to purchase, housing starts finally edged up in the month of June to 8.3 percent,” says Greg Parsons, Semper Capital Management CEO. “The need to balance the g

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Where It’s Toughest for Builders to Add Homes

The Los Angeles beachfront neighborhood of Venice may be one of the most in-demand areas in the nation—but it hasn’t gained a single housing unit in the last 15 years.Venice was ranked as the country’s toughest place to build new homes, according to an analysis by contractor website BuildZoom.com. In fact, the neighborhood had about 700 fewer housing units in 2015 than it did in 2000. Apartment development has come to a standstill there, an

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Builders Speed Up to Meet Housing Demands

Home builders are ramping up the pace of new-home construction in response to an ongoing shortage of homes for sale across the country.Housing starts nationwide jumped 8.3 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.22 million units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Single-family production zoomed to its second highest rate of this year, increasing 6.3 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 849,0

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Owners Tackle More Remodels as Equity Rises

Spending on repairs and home improvement continues to grow at a stable rate as homeowners feel more confident about starting projects as their home values increase.That said, an annual increase in remodeling expenditures may soften somewhat in the coming months, but will likely remain at or above 6 percent through the second quarter of 2018, according to the latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity from Harvard University’s Joint Ce

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