Home Builder Economic Forecast given at International Builder Show

I am sorry for all of you reading this in Michigan right now. I am currently At the International Builders Show™ in sunny Orlando, Florida. It is a little cool right now because it is in the 60’s. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to cope. Yesterday we were given the 2008 housing outlook according to the NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) economists. Their news agreed with what I posted a few weeks ago regarding the fact we seem to be moving more homes and with the slow down in building, inventory is reducing. It was nice to hear the validation in the numbers that we are seeing locally. They also gave a report regarding the foreclosure rate and what the numbers realyy mean. I will go into more detail on this next week. They are very optimistic about the outcome the home building industry for the next two years. I am going to try and get permission to post part of the report up to show what they had put together. It is a pay service, so I cannot guarantee anything. If you want to try and find it you can go to www.nahb.com and look for it. I am moderating two Meet the Expert courses at the builders show so I have posted some of the forms that Forsberg Real Estate uses in its day to day operations that I am going to be talking about in Florida. These are mainly Goal Setting and Agent Training forms, but are located on the right side of the screen if you are interested in looking through them. Have a great day.

Lansing Housing Market Stabilizing

Good news for the Lansing Real Estate Market, we are finally seeing the amount of inventory on the market getting lower. In July 2007 our company found that there was approximately 15.35 months of inventory based on the amount of homes available divided by what had sold over the previous year. This information is based on data pulled from the Multiple List Service of the Greater Lansing Association of Realtors. A current snapshot using sales data from 2007 over current inventory shows that the amount of inventory has dropped to 13.2 months. This is still up from the beginning of last year, but hopefully it is a good sign of what this year will offer to us in the real estate market. New construction has also seen a significant drop. Currently there is approximately a 14.2 month supply of new homes in the Greater Lansing Area. This also shows a drop in the amount of supply currently available. Most of that is due most likely to the significant drop in permits pulled for new homes in 2007. We saw one of the lowest years for new permits pulled in the tri-county area since the early 1980’s.
In our communities we have around the Lansing area, we are also seeing an increase in the amount of traffic that is coming through the doors. We currently have three new homes being built in Lakeside, two getting ready to start in Williamston, and one that just completed in Mason. Even with an election year, it seems that barring an announcement of a major job catastrophe for the Lansing area, we have seen a turning point in our housing market.

Despite National Gloom, Lansing Real Estate Shows Life.

If you did not get a chance to read the business section of the local paper today, it wasn't great news for the new construction housing industry. The Articles title was "New Home Sales Plunge." It is interesting to see that according to data collected by the Commerce Department, the Midwest saw a decline of 27.6 percent from October to November. I found this interesting since November this year was one of our busiest months. In our community Lakeside, we welcomed three new neighbors that are all in the process of building their homes. I find it interesting that the paper has a quote from Richard Yamarone a national economist that states "This is one sector of the economy that doesn't show any signs of life." It is interesting because the U.S. is still on pace to sell 647,000 new homes this year. It might not be the million homes that we topped a few years ago, and I am not saying that this is a healthy market. I just don't think that it is fair to say that here is no sign of life.
Locally, many of the bankers and Realtors that I have talked to have been very happy with the level of activity going on right now in our market. One builder we work with is putting in five more basements for customers before the end of January. I bring this up, because these are positive spots in our local area that you won't hear about in our main media streams. I know that homes aren't valued as high as they were a few years ago, and if you are a seller that sales are not as strong as they were. Even so, there is life in the real estate market and homes are still selling. The market will come back, and we will see real estate values rise in the future. What this region needs to focus on is job growth and stability. More jobs in the region mean a greater demand for housing helping marketing times and values.