Tampa Forecasted One Of 2014 Hottest Markets

Median home price : $177,000
Forecast gain through Sept. 2014: 8%
Once one of the nation’s leading foreclosure hotspots, things are starting to turn around in Tampa.

The area has been working through its foreclosure problem and the local economy is gaining steam with new employers, including Bristol Myers, opening offices, according to Bob Rohrlack, CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

In the 12 months ended September, home prices climbed 14.6% and they are expected to keep climbing in the new year. CoreLogic forecasts that they will rise 8% in the 12 months ending this September.

Despite the gains, buyers will still get a bargain. The median home price in the metro area is around $177,000, well below the national median of $207,000

Plansource, Inc., www.plansonline.com, is a Tampa-based residential design firm that is a portal of information for homebuilders and the homebuilding industry.

Reprinted from Builder Magazine

3 Florida Metros Get High 3 Year Investment Forecast

10 Housing Markets for Investment in 2014

Forbes‘ list of the top 20 markets for housing investment uses a mix of home price, and local economic data in more than 300 housing markets from Local Market Monitor. Forbes‘ choices were ranked primarily on four factors: population, home prices, and the local jobs economy to compile the list of Best Buy Cities.

Each market on the list breaks out the following data: population, actual home price, equilibrium home price, percent difference, and 3-year growth forecast. We combed each market’s growth forecast and broke out the top 10 markets for expected growth out of Forbes’ top 20.

 

Plansource, Inc., www.plansonline.com, remains a portal for information for hombuilders and the homebuilding industry

Reprinted from Builder Magazine and Forbes

Summary of Great News for 2014

If all you wanted for Christmas was good news about where housing is headed, then you should have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. What follows is a quick recap of the latest good news on housing activity:

Construction spending on single-family housing is up almost 90% since hitting its market low in June 2009.

According to the NAHB/First American Leading Markets Index, the overall housing market is operating at about 86% of normal conditions.

Almost 30% of builders report that the Aquisition, Development & Construction lending market is improving.

There’s still a near shortage of completed, unsold inventory of new single-family homes, and after dipping early this fall new home sales have rebounded nicely.

NAHB’s Housing Market Index, which measures builder sentiment, jumped to 58 in November, which is up 23% year-over-year; it had hit a low of less than 10 at the bottom of the market.

NAHB also reported that its index that measures the pace of current new home sales was up 26% year-over-year, and that builders overall said buyer traffic is up 22% year-over-year.

A 124,000, the number of unfilled jobs in construction is at a 5-year high.

While mortgage rates have increased over the last 12 months, they’ve actually declined 20 basis points since hitting a peak in September.

November housing starts, at an annual rate of 1.1 million, rose 30% year-over-year.

November single-family building permits, at an annual rate of 634,000, were up 11% year-over-year.

I could go on with the glad tidings but most of you are probably busy with last minute shopping for…building materials.

Plansource, Inc., www.plansonline.com, remains a portal of information for homebuilders and the homebuilding industry.

Reprinted from Builder Magazine

Majority of Buyers Prefer New Housing

According to the National Association of Home Builders’ What Home Buyers Really Want report, more than half of new and potential home buyers prefer to purchase a new home.

Custom home builders and building companies have a nearly-equal shot at the market of buyers purchasing new homes; 27% preferred a custom build on a private lot, and 28% preferred a new home from a developer.

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Plansource Inc., www.plansonline.com, remains a portal of information for homebuilders and the homebuilding industry.

 

Reprinted from Builder Magazine

Homes Sales improve in October 2013

Americans ramped up purchases of new homes in October after three months of soft sales, evidence that the housing recovery is improving fitfully.

Sales of new homes grew 25.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 444,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That was the largest monthly percentage increase since May 1980.

But the increase came after sales had fallen 6.6 percent in September to a 354,000 annual rate, the weakest since April 2012. And sales in August and July were revised lower to 379,000 and 373,000, respectively.

Sales had slowed over the summer after mortgage rates rose sharply and a limited number of homes for sale boosted prices. The combination made home-buying less affordable.

New-homes sales have risen 21.6 percent higher for the 12 months ending in October. Still, the pace remains well below the 700,000 consistent with a healthy market.

“The report suggests sharp weakening through September and then a rebound in October, but the volatility in the data argues against putting much emphasis on a single month,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics.

Prices for new homes eased in October. They fell 4.5 percent to $245,800 from September and have declined slightly over the past 12 months.

The number of new homes available for sale was 183,000 in October. That’s still relatively lean — at the August sales’ pace it would almost take five months to exhaust the supply.

The Commerce Department delayed the release of the September sales figures because of the partial government shutdown in October. As a result, new-home sales for October and September were released on Wednesday, in addition to revisions for the two previous months.

Plansource, Inc., www.plansonline.com, a Tampa based residential design firm, remains a portal of information for homebuilders and the homebuilding industry.

Reprinted from AP

Housing Prices to Regain 2006 Level by 2016

When housing prices started falling in 2007, the collapse created a vicious cycle. As prices fell, more and more homeowners found themselves underwater and more and more homes fell into foreclosure. In turn, the banks’ panic pricing for foreclosed units drove prices even lower, which caused even more homes to go into foreclosure. And so on.

Now, with prices finally rising, the mortgage delinquency rate is declining and that tends to push prices higher, which tends to further reduce delinquencies…and so on.

Largely as a result of the pricing phenomenon, Deutsche Bank now forecasts that housing prices on a nationwide level will increase by 21.5% over the next three years. If the bank is correct, that will push prices up to the 2006 peak (see top table).

Deutsche Bank further forecasts that the housing price recovery will be uneven in the top 25 housing markets (see bottom chart). For the most part those markets that were hit hardest by price declines (among them, Seattle, San Jose, Washington, DC and Phoenix) will see the biggest rebounds. But, and this is important, the forecast shows housing prices rising in all 25 key markets.

Falling prices wreaked havoc with consumer confidence. Rising prices should have the opposite effect. And that sounds like good news for housing. Or, as Deutsche Bank put it, “housing’s lost decade is almost over.”

Plansource, Inc., a Tampa based residential design firm, remains a portal for information on building and for homebuilders.

Reprinted from Builder Magazine 

 

Tampa Area Sales Continue to Rise

Sales of existing homes and median home prices in the Tampa Bay area continued to rise in the third quarter of 2013, new figures from the Florida Realtors trade group show.  During the three months ending September 30, the number of existing single-family homes sold in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area rose 16.6% to 10,106 over the same three months last year.  The median price of those sales wa $159,900, up by 23% over the same period last year.  statewide, the number of single-family home sales rose by 17.3% in the third quarter, and the median sales price of $175,000 was up by 18.6%.

Plansource, a Tampa-based residential design firm, remains a portal of information for builders and the homebuilding industry.   www.plansonline.com.

Reprinted from Tampa Tribune

Tampa Area Sales Up in 3rd Quarter 2013

Sales of existing homes and median home prices in the Tampa Bay area continued to rise in the third quarter of 2013, new figures from the Florida Realtors trade group show.  During the three months ending September 30, the number of existing single-family homes sold in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area rose 16.6% to 10,106 over the same three months last year.  The median price of those sales wa $159,900, up by 23% over the same period last year.  statewide, the number of single-family home sales rose by 17.3% in the third quarter, and the median sales price of $175,000 was up by 18.6%.

Plansource, a Tampa-based residential design firm, remains a portal of information for builders and the homebuilding industry.   www.plansonline.com.

Reprinted from Tampa Tribune

2014 Builder Expectations Positive

The most reliable indicator of housing activity, by far, is NAHB’s builder sentiment index. When it’s up, starts rise; when it’s down, starts fall. And the steepness of the increases or decreases of the index and housing starts overlay almost precisely.

However, the index has two limitations: one, it doesn’t very precisely tell you how much (on a percentage basis) activity will move up or down; and, two, it just takes into account only builders’ points of view. What about, dealers, remodelers, and architects, not to mention that builders come in different shapes and sizes…for example, custom builders, multifamily builders and production builders.

Now Hanley Wood, publisher of BUILDER, comes to the rescue. The magazine recently conducted a survey, and 2,000 builders (of all shapes and sizes), dealers and, remodelers and architects responded. The survey gauged how much the respondents thought revenue from home building and remodeling would increase (or decrease) in 2014.

Turns out your peers are pretty optimistic. (See graph.) On average about 40% of all respondents expect revenue to increase by 10% or more next year (dealers are most optimistic, architects the least optimistic). Moreover only about 8% anticipate any kind of revenue decrease.

Now this doesn’t mean that you should put on your rose-colored glasses as you plan for and budget for 2014, but I think you should feel confident that there’s real upside in your business.

Plansource, Inc., www.plansonline.com, a Tampa, FL based residential design firm, remains a portal of information for homebuilders and the homebuilding industry.

Reprinted from Builder Magazine

Home Construction to Surge in Coming Quarters

Home construction could surge in coming quarters, despite signals of recent softness, as buyers look to lock in good deals and it becomes easier to obtain a mortgage, according to a Monday research note from CIBC World Markets.

Analysts with the Canada-based investment bank forecast that construction will be started on almost 1.2 million U.S. homes next year, up 29% from 930,000 by the end of this year. Part of that jump will be due to borrowers rushing to close deals with relatively low mortgage rates, and before prices rise too much further.

“The anticipated increase in costs could be a powerful motivation to buy in the next few quarters rather than wait it out,” CIBC analysts wrote.

Annual home prices were recently up more than 12%. And mortgage rates started rising in early May, though they have declined in recent weeks. The combination of higher rates and prices raise monthly mortgage payments, pricing out some interested buyers.

However, mortgage rates remain relatively low by historical standards and home prices are about 21% below a bubble peak. Looking forward, mortgages may remain cheap following the Federal Reserve’s recent decision not to pull back yet on programs that are keeping longer-term rates low.

Among the various hurdles that would-be borrowers have faced in recent years are extremely high credit standards. In the wake of the financial meltdown, the mortgage market made it tougher to get a loan, and there’s been concern that some credit-worthy borrowers have been unable to obtain credit.

But there are signs that mortgage standards are starting to ease. Also, banks may increasingly look to make new loans as applications to refinance dry up.

There’s certainly room for home construction to grow. For August the government estimated that housing starts hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 891,000, far below the 1.7 million starts per year that economists estimate are needed to maintain current stock and meet demand for replacement and second homes.

Plansource, Inc, a Tampa based residential design firm, www.plansonline.com, continues to remain a portal of information for homebuilders and the homebuilding industry.

Reprinted from Builder Magazine/Market Watch