Involvement in the New Home Market is Beneficial

According to all of the statistics from many corners: housing research firms such as Zelman Associates, investors in the stock market, the National Association of Realtors, and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), involvement in the new home market is beneficial on many different levels.  Investors are significantly pleased with the robust returns of national publicly held home builders such as Meritage Homes Corp., Toll Brothers Inc., Taylor Morrison Home Corp. and Standard Pacific Corp.  The U.S. Home Construction Index of the Dow Jones

has seen a 10.8% gain excluding dividends for its investors.  Toll Brothers Inc. celebrates a 13% increase in orders year-over-year compared to 2014 as well.

Builders are reporting the sales of new homes have gotten off to a tremendous start in January and February of 2015.  The NAHB is also in line with this assumption, so the only downward impactful news out of all of this is that the sale of existing homes is faltering.  However, for once, there is good news associated with this negative trend.  Because of the real estate market recovery after the Recession, the inventory of homes that are on the market to be sold that can immediately be bought is 4.7 months.  This means that it would take only 4.7 months to buy every home that is currently for sale in the United States.  During the Recession, the inventory of homes reached almost 2 years, so this low amount of inventory is an indicator that the housing recovery has truly taken a positive turn.  However, during a healthy housing market, the inventory normally stands around 6 months.  So, existing home sales have slowed to their slowest pace in 9 months because of this and other factors.

Last year, both builders and Realtors alike suffered through the numerous and overwhelming polar fronts that came sweeping down from not just Canada but the Arctic itself.  These weather patterns last year literally had the housing market at a standstill during the 1st quarter of 2014.  While not as bad this year, the weather has affected people’s home shopping habits and kept them indoors.  Also, January and February are not normally booming months for real estate sales, so it’s definitely not time to panic and start liquidating all of the assets just yet!

While the two factors above may be slowing down existing home sales, overall, home sales are set to increase during the spring which is typically the “busy season” for real estate because of three factors: the economy (GDP), job growth, and interest rates.  The GDP has been increasing each quarter for the past 1.5 years.  However slight, these increases seem to be “piling up” so that even some economists are surprised by the growth each quarter of the GDP.  Unemployment has been dropping for many months in a row and showing a consistent increase in available jobs each quarter as well.  The job market is getting so robust that people that had been on long term unemployment are once again entering the job market.  Finally interest rates for mortgages are still unbeatable at lower than 4%.  They do climb over 4% every couple of weeks, but even at those rates, they are still lower than an average interest rate in a “normal market” of 5.5% to 7%.

Investors, builders, researchers, and economists are sure to have their eye on the real estate market for both new homes and existing homes moving into the spring quarter (and hopefully the busiest quarter), so they will be able to predict if this sales phenomena is merely a lull or an actual trend.  In the mean time, new homes are for sale throughout the United States, and at the moment, buyers are interested in purchasing them.

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Building a St. Tammany Parish Parade of Homes House

Ron Lee Homes is currently in the process of building a St. Tammany Parish Parade of Homes house located on Lot 297 in TerraBella Village in Covington, Louisiana.  Each year, builders in St. Tammany Parish have the opportunity to showcase their custom home expertise and innovation by building a unique and exceptional home for sale for the St. Tammany Parish Home Builders Association’s (now called the Northshore Home Builders Association) Parade of Homes.  Residents and visitors of St. Tammany Parish and the Southshore come out in droves over 2 full weekends of touring new homes, custom homes, and homes for sale.  This is when home buyers get an idea of the type of home amenities, both interior and exterior alike, that they would like to use in the homes that they build or the homes that they buy in St. Tammany Parish.

2015 St. Tammany Parish Parade of Homes Information for Ron Lee Homes

Terra Bella Village Lot 297 924 Chretian Pointe Avenue Covington, LA 70433

Buying a custom home is a lot of fun because at every step along the way, you get to make choices about the materials – countertops, cabinetry, flooring, paint colors, millwork, appliances, and fixtures – that you want to see carefully crafted into your new, custom home.  Our goal at Ron Lee Homes is to set your imagination free!  The sky’s the limit when you hire Ron Lee Homes to design your floorplan and assist you with making custom amenity  selections.  We want to dream with you and help your vision come to life and build you the type of home where you and your family will spend many happy hours.

During the St. Tammany Parish HBA’s Parade of Homes, we build a new, custom home that includes a myriad of tasteful and exceptional selections of custom interior and exterior amenities that we want to showcase to potential home buyers.  Our floorplan designs come from over 24 years experience of building new homes on the Northshore.  We have had feedback from hundreds of our customers as to the style and type of floorplan that they like and what is efficient and workable for almost every type of household.  You won’t want to miss this year’s Parade of Homes house in Terra Bella Village. 

This French Country Style floorplan design has two-story front porches that overlook Terra Bella Lake.  The home is a 3 Bedroom (with either a 4th bedroom or Gameroom), 3 Bathroom floorplan with approximately 3,550 living square feet and 5,431 total square footage.  Most of our floorplan features are a secret until the big unveiling on the Parade of Homes Weekends, but in addition to a spectacular design, must-see master suite, and alley access, 2-car garage, this home also features outdoor living areas for entertaining and cooking.  You won’t want to miss the preview of this new home for sale by Ron Lee Homes in Covington, LA!  For More Information, Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

Remodeling Outlook Is Favorable for 2015

The remodeling outlook is favorable for 2015 both locally and nationally according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).  As there are many types of memberships for a traditional home builders association, there are many facets of the national real estate market that the NAHB keeps tabs on with remodeling and renovations being one of them.  The remodeling business tends to

trend upwards and downwards with the new home and existing homes market.  Whether homeowners are getting their house ready to put on the market and sell, or they are building an addition onto their existing home in order to make more room because they feel the real estate market may not be stable enough to move makes a difference as to how much business a person in the renovation business can get.
According to the press conference hosted by the NAHB Remodelers at the International Builders’ Show (IBS) in Las Vegas, the remodeling business forecast projects a 3% growth year-over-year compared to 2014, and another 1.5% growth is expected for 2016.  The panel of remodelers who attended the press conference commented that it was changing homeowner demographics and financial security that have loosened up the market to allow more people to have renovations done to their homes.
“Remodelers are responding to calls from home owners on steadier financial footing than recent years,” said 2015 NAHB Remodelers Chairman Robert Criner, GMR, GMB, CAPS, CGP, a remodeler from Newport News, Va. “From major kitchen remodels and bath facelifts to room additions, the members of NAHB Remodelers look forward to providing professional remodeling services in 2015.”
According to the NAHB, the RMI (Remodeling Market Index) which surveys the confidence of remodelers in 4 categories – calls for bids, amount of work committed for the next three months, backlog of jobs and appointments for proposals – resulted in a score of 60 (any score above 50 means that confidence is high).  In all 4 categories, the RMI saw an increase, and the score of 60 was a record high for this survey.  Many economists, remodelers, contractors, and builders alike are cautiously optimistic that the real estate market has taken an upward turn that should not reverse itself.  Ron Lee Homes in St. Tammany Parish Louisiana now offers complete remodeling services for the St. Tammany Parish area.  For More Information about remodeling your home, Contact Ron Lee Homes today at 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

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