Researcher Clear Capital created a list of markets, with expected changes in house price changes to the good, and to the bad. Many Florida markets made the list, to the good side.
reprinted from Builder Magazine
Plansource remains a portal of information on the homebuilding industry.
Designing a home for today’s consumer is challenging, given the market dynamics, competitive environment, changing demographics and financial and time constraints. Successful designers create from research and experience. They:
Design cannot be successful without all of these components.
Design is a top priority for consumers today. Good design is the balance consumers are looking for in order to motivate them to make a purchase. As shown in the graph below, “home style and design” ranked second in our survey of 10,000 prospective buyers across the nation – second only to the most important investment rule in real estate: “location, location, location.” Interestingly, price ranked below location and design nationally and in many parts of the country. Location, design and price ranked among the top three priorities in all MSAs reported (although not always in this exact order for every MSA).
What does home style and design mean? While architecture varies by region, location and demographic profile, our survey findings showed that consumer preferences were not significantly different throughout the country. The biggest differences were dictated by household size and family status, coupled with the financial realities in each market. For example, the Texas buyer can afford a lot more home than the Washington, D.C. buyer.
Profitable Design in 2011: We are seeing all sorts of creative design in the market, with many of the best-designed homes outselling the competition by 300%.
Plansource, Inc. remains a portal of information for homebuilders throughout Florida and the southeastern United States. www.plansonline.com. Reprinted John Burns Real Estate Consulting.
Plansource, Inc., a Tampa based residential design firm, has partnered with Monster House Plans to distribute our portfolio of plans within their publications. As always, all Plansource, Inc. plans are designed to the current Florida Building Code and are available as signed and sealed permit sets, as well as unsigned sets for a builder or homeowner to utilize his own engineer.
Plansource, Inc. will continue to do its own order fulfillment to ensure the standards for Florida’s complex building code are met. Custom home and duplex designs, CD Roms of the drawing files, presentation artwork, writing architectural deed restrictions, and full design customization services of our single family and duplex catalogue plans are but a few of the many services we provide homebuilders in Florida and throughout the Southeast.
Since its inception in 1996, Plansource has focused on quality design and service for all of its clients. Because the firm focuses only on residential design, Plansource is able to fully understand the needs of its clients, and the markets they build in.
Sponsored by the Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA), one of the largest professional associations of its kind, the Aurora Award design competition is presented to outstanding builders, planners, architects, developers, designers, interior merchandisers and other housing-related professionals within a 12-state SE and Eastern Caribbean region.
Winning the award garners respect and distinction and is recognized throughout the industry as the southeast region’s premier building and design competition. Since its inception over 31 years ago, the Aurora Awards continues to be the major event at the Southeast Building Conference.
Plansource can be reached at www.plansonline.com.
Beyond doubt, as bad as it’s been for home builders of all stripes, the basis is in place for a recovery sometime. The Pew Research Center offers this report today: “The five-year swoon in home prices has done little to shake the confidence of the American public in the investment value of homeownership.
Fully eight-in-ten (81%) adults agree that buying a home is the best long-term investment a person can make, according a nationwide Pew Research Center survey of 2,142 adults conducted from March 15 to March 29, 2011.
There has been some falloff in the intensity of the public’s faith. Today, 37% ‘strongly agree’ while 44% ‘somewhat agree’ that homeownership is the best investment a person can make.
When this same question was asked two decades ago in a CBS News/New York Times survey, 49% ‘strongly agreed’ and 35% ‘somewhat agreed.’”
Good enough to believe that when a paycheck-to-paycheck household can get a home loan, demand will be there.
Plansource, Inc. www.plansonline.com remains a portal of information to homebuilders and homebuyers. Reprinted from Pew Research.
Standardization seemed to be an inevitable result of cost cutting. As builders beat their brains out over the last several years trying to appeal to price-conscious first-time buyers, they often standardized on key items–cabinets, windows, flooring, and roofing–to lower prices.
Now, as the market begins to thaw somewhat, some builders are questioning that move. It may not be what the buyers of new homes, as opposed to resales, want. Consumer research consistently shows that a chief attraction of new homes is the opportunity to customize.
One homebuilder recently changed its marketing direction after market research showed buyers wanted more design choices in buying a new home. They not only allows buyers to select finishes, but they can make structural changes as well. Thanks to strong operating controls, the company still manages to meet its goal of building homes in 54 working days.
This change in emphasis probably doesn’t work for every builder. The industry has always split between companies that strive for the highest value proposition (and ultimately the highest return on capital) and others that stress design flexibility (and ultimately the highest margins).
It’s just that with trade-up buyers largely absent from the market in recent years, it hasn’t been easy to go for add-on sales. Now, with discretionary buyers returning in small numbers, we will no doubt see more of it.
Reprinted from Builder Magazine
It seems that foreclosures are developing a stigma in the housing market. People should be shying away from them, as bank and title issues are a lengthy and complicated process that can leave the buyer in an unclear situation. New homes do not have these issues, and can usually close very quickly-a marketing opportunity for builders.
The latest Raymond James & Associates housing update for Florida makes one thing perfectly clear. The magnitude of the dysfunction in the market right now—with almost one-in-four mortgages in some form of delinquency—measures the hugeness of the opportunity in the months ahead. Some of that opportunity, thanks to the broken foreclosure pipeline, may be for new-home builders who can leverage being able to deliver a title-clear offering to their advantage. Big Builder reports.
Plansource, Inc. remains a portal for information on the homebuilding industry.
