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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Covington’s Historic District Gets Nod from APA

Living in St. Tammany Parish has many benefits and lifestyle value for those residents and homeowners who enjoy the small town life but also desire the convenience of access to shopping, dining, entertainment, and culture.  The Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain is partially a bedroom community and slowly developing an entire commercial and retail sector which is supporting large corporate entities such as Chevron and Budweiser as well as thriving local businesses that hung on and were able to make money even through the recession.  Building a new custom home in any of the cities of St. Tammany Parish, such as Mandeville, Covington, Madisonville, and Abita Springs affords you the benefit of making a living, working for the local businesses, corporations, and industrial warehouses, while still enjoying the feel and ambiance of small town life.

Before Hurricane Katrina, St. Tammany Parish was more of a bedroom community with a small and stable population.  With the flood of new home buyers coming across the lake after the storm, St. Tammany Parish was forced to grow at a faster rate, earning the I-12 corridor the label of being one of the fastest growing corridors in the United States.  Now, the Northshore retains its small town attitude but offers a full array of box stores, mall stores, formal restaurants and dining as well as exquisite local cuisine served at small but established venues.  One of the cities on the Northshore in St. Tammany Parish known for its culture and cuisine is Covington, Louisiana.  Covington just spent a significant amount of time and city budget completely renovating the streetscapes, landscapes, and curb appeal of its historic district.  In addition, the city also just celebrated its Bicentennial bringing many visitors and much exposure to downtown Covington.

This gorgeous and growing city can now add another feather to its cap because Mayor Mike Cooper just accepted the American Planning Association’s Great Place Award APA State Planning Awards Luncheon in Baton Rouge recently.  This award recognizes the city’s exemplary character, quality and planning, as well as architectural features, accessibility, functionality and community involvement.  The city of Covington, LA goes beyond the borders of  downtown Covington’s historic district.  It also encompasses an entire commercial district that was just expanded with the Colonial Pinnacle Nord du Lac shopping district off of Highway 21.  A Winn Dixie was also built in this area and tucked behind all of this commercial development is the Stone Creek Club & Spa which offers a variety of luxurious services for Covington residents.  Covington, Louisiana also boasts the renovation of the town’s new courthouse finished just before Hurricane Katrina which just recently underwent another renovation, adding a new parking garage.

If you are considering moving to St. Tammany Parish, Covington, Louisiana would be the perfect place to build a new custom home in the many subdivisions located in that area.  Ron Lee Homes builds new homes in which are all located in the amazing St. Tammany Parish school district – a perfect place to raise a family.  Contact Ron Lee Homes today to begin the design and construction of a new home or new custom home in Covington, Louisiana.  Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

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Optimistic New Home Sales Projections for 2015

Economists, the National Association of Home Builders, and the National Association of Realtors all seem to agree upon one thing at the moment – the real estate market is definitely improving.  There just seems to be a lot of disagreement as to how fast the market is improving or will improve in 2015 and which buyers will get the most benefit from this improvement.  The Wall Street Journal’s parent company which just purchased Move, Inc., the owner of Realtor.com, went straight to the horse’s mouth to hear from Jonathan Smoke, the chief economist for Realtor.com to get his take on the current projections.  Below are the results:

National Association of Realtors: Predicts a 41% increase in new home sales
National Association of Home Builders: Predicts a 28% increase in new home sales
Jonathan Smoke, Economist Realtor.com: Predicts a 25% increase in new home sales

Smoke has a few reasons why he takes a cautiously optimistic viewpoint of the current and future real estate market.  One reason is that there is still a 4.5 – 5 month inventory of vacant new homes to be sold, and prices for these homes have not yet stabilized.  The second reason is that even though employment numbers have grown, new households which would have been established by college graduates may not materialize the way that economists think because of down payment requirements on tight credit home loans and student debt costs which have still not been resolved by Washington D.C.  In other words, these potential home buyers would not have the capital on hand to invest in purchasing a new home.  The last reason why Smoke thinks that the percentage of new home sales will be smaller than both the NAHB and the NAR is because builders will not be able to “ramp up” and start building new homes at a rapid pace.  Most builders divested themselves of empty lots during the Recession because of the cost of keeping them and paying taxes was a drain on their finances.  Therefore, they are not ready to begin building multiple homes at once like they once were as production builders.

However, even the cautiously optimistic increase of 25% for new home sales is still good news for the real estate market.  Another piece of good news is that economists think that the first-time home buyer market may be making a comeback.  News has been filtering out of Washington D.C. that there are programs being created for low-income and moderate-income buyers that will give them down payment assistance once again.  The rumor also is that mortgage companies are going to loosen up on the credit requirements in 2015 as well, but there have been no definite indicators of that just yet.  Because of the positive unemployment numbers that have been reported over the last two quarters, home buyers with good or excellent credit who have savings are now able to go ahead and buy a home because they also now have steady income.  All of these factors have been progressively building builder confidence and increasing the permits, starts, and production of new homes especially in the Greater New Orleans area.  For More Information about buying a new home, Contact Ron Lee Homes at 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

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Real Estate Investments and Second Home Purchases

They always say that investing in real estate is a wise investment.  Since we don’t know who “they” are, people can be skeptic of this saying, but in the case of the current real estate market in 2015, investing in real estate is a wise investment for many reasons.

The first reason is the interest rates.  Interest rates hit the lowest they have ever been during 2013 thanks to the Fed’s bond buying program which artificially lowered housing interest rates in order to stimulate economic growth. Fortunately the maneuver worked, and the economy has since begun to slowly grow back towards its normal employment rates and GDP rates. When this began to happen,
interest rates went back up, but only by 1% or 1.5% depending on the month of the year of 2014 that you were looking at interest rates.  The rates out there are STILL at historic lows, so low in fact that you may want to consider using these interest rates in order to invest in a second home or a real estate investment.

The second reason it is wise to invest in real estate right now is because of the selection and pricing of homes on the market right now.  Once the economy shifted and people’s funds started to increase again from being depleted by the Recession, home prices started to rise at a rapid rate.  For 6 months out of 2014, home prices increase by many whole percentages every month.  However, home pricing is not totally back to normal in all markets.  Depending on where you are looking to possibly make a real estate investment or purchase a second home, you may still be able to get a deal on a home at a lower than normal price.  When the market fully recovers, you could see a good bit more appreciation than you would in a normal market with normal pricing.

When looking to purchase a second home or make a real estate investment, you should definitely do your homework extensively especially if you are still paying on a mortgage for your primary residence.  Below are some helpful tips on the steps to take when purchasing a second home.

1. Research Your Market: If you are savvy enough to find out everything you can on the Internet, or if you live close to the location where you are thinking about purchasing a new home, condo, or townhome, then you should be able to at least narrow down where you think that you will be making a good investment.  However, it is strongly recommended that you work with a local Realtor in the area in order to find out the best neighborhoods, which communities may have lost their value, comps in subdivisions in the area, and what homes are going to either retain their value or appreciate over time.  A qualified and experienced Realtor should definitely be able to help you out with this information.

2. Know Your Insurance Requirements: If you are looking to buy a second home in the Greater New Orleans area or Gulf Coast areas, keep in mind that you will run into issues getting both homeowner’s insurance and flood insurance if you are purchasing say a beach home or a home in a flood zone.  Before moving forward to aggressively on a purchase, you will want to go ahead and get quotes for insurance on the home or property to make sure that you can afford the escrow on the 2nd mortgage.

3. Research a Good Mortgage: In today’s market, credit has loosened up some, but it is still pretty difficult to quality for a home loan.  Be ready to have cash at closing.  To qualify for an excellent interest rate, you will want to consider putting at least 10% down on the home to drive up the equity.

“It is relatively easy to qualify for a second-home financing,” Bill Banfield, a Quicken Loans vice president says. “There is still a 10 percent down financing option. You can even get cash-out on a second home. There is jumbo financing for a second home. It is a very liquid market.”

4. Be Aware of Taxes: Since you are purchasing a second home, you will not be able to claim homestead on the home unless you make that home your primary residence.  When choosing a location to buy, you may consider buying a home, condo, or town home on the “fringe” of  a popular market in order to save on taxes.

If you are in the market for a 2nd home in St. Tammany Parish in the Greater New Orleans area, Contact Ron Lee Homes to discuss your home building plans.  Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

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New Subdivision The Willows Approved for Zoning Change

It is now in the hands of the St. Tammany Parish Planning Commission to resolve the tension between the current homeowners of Willow Bend and the developer Henry Billiot, an officer of Reiher LLC concerning a new subdivision which he will develop and build just north of Bootlegger

Road on the east side of Willow Bend.  The controversy concerns the use of the road Willow Bend Drive to access the new subdivision which has been named The Willows.  Residents of Willow Bend feel that by using the same entry road as their subdivision that consumers will view the new neighborhood as a new phase of the same subdivision, thereby decreasing home values in Willow Bend.  The new community The Willows will offer 25 lots for sale with sizes ranging from roughly 9,000 to 18,000 square feet which will accommodate homes ranging from 1,650 to 2,200 square feet.  The price point for the community will be $250,000 – $400,000 where Willow Bend Subdivision has homes ranging in price from $300,000 – $800,000.

The St. Tammany Parish Zoning Commission approved a zoning change for the land being developed from I-2 (Industrial District) and A-2 (Suburban District) to A-3 (Suburban District).  Commissioner Bill Matthews noted thatLot 52, Willow Bend some of the land for The Willows is currently zoned for industrial development. “Having an industrial park a few hundred yards away would not do your home values any good,” he told residents of Willow Bend.  The Commission also approved a Planned Unit Development Overlay designation which will allow smaller lots, but 25% of the community must have an approved allowance for greenspace along with other requirements from the Planning Commission.

There was talk at the zoning meeting about widening Willow Bend Drive to accommodate the extra traffic, but it will be up to the Planning Commission to unsnarl the tangle of concern from the residents of Willow Bend and the new developer regarding the new subdivision being built in St. Tammany Parish.  Check back with Ron Lee Homes to find out more about this story.  If you are interested in buying a new home or building a new home in Willow Bend, Contact Us Today to find out more about the new and custom homes for sale.  Call 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.


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