Homebuyers looking to purchase a house before prices and
interest rates climb higher are filling builders’ sales offices. New houses are
springing up around the country, and tract builders and developers are buying more land for new
subdivisions.
They are all welcome signs that the slowly recovering
housing market is picking up as the
recession. More homes are being built than last year, but the pace of the
recovery is not accelerating as fast as had been anticipated. According to
industry experts, new-home construction will climb at less than half the rate
expected earlier this year.
Viking Carrier
PFS Corporation
Mariotti Building Products
But a combination of factors is creating headwinds for the
homebuilding industry: a shortage of construction workers; subcontractors
unable to ramp up their operations fast enough; and a shrinking availability of
prime building lots. With the exception of prime building lots, modular home
builders are the best answer for homebuyers as their factories have plenty of
skilled labor and most factories are still far from running at capacity.
Now, some of the large tract builders are limiting the
number of houses they offer for sale as they watch prices continue to rise.
In a midyear forecast affirmed the homebuilding market is
still in a recovery, but the number of houses that can be built will be limited
during the next few years.
For people shopping for a new house, this likely means
new-home prices will continue to rise faster than average. The average price of
a new home has climbed 24 percent in the past year.
