Builders build
Oklahoma City-area homebuilders are building out of their 2016 slump, but not at the pace of the five previous years.
Oklahoma Cityarea homebuilders are building out of their 2016 slump, but not at the pace of the five previous years.
Construction was up 8.7 percent at the end of the third quarter, with 3,640 home starts compared with 3,349 the first nine months of last year, according to The Builder Report by Dharma Inc. in Norman.
Builders ended September on pace to close 2017 with 4,600 starts, which would be between the level of activity in 2011 and 2012, when the industry was digging out of the housing crash and Great Recession.
The Builder Report tracks homebuilding in Oklahoma City, unincorporated Oklahoma County, Bethany, Blanchard, Choctaw, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore, Mustang, Newcastle, Noble, Norman, Shawnee, and Yukon.
Fall parade fallout
New homes were moving during the recent Parade of Homes Fall Classic, said Rusty Appleton, executive director of the Central Oklahoma Builders Association.
He said he knew of just one builder with a parade entry who didn’t sell it or contract to build a home for someone who toured it.
“By and large, they were thrilled with how it went, in all quarters of the city,” Appleton said.
Out of step
The general strength of the new-home market here puts Oklahoma City out of step, again, with the nation as a whole, which saw demand slip heading into fall. New-home sales fell 3.4 percent in August, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Single-family home sales handled by Realtors, new and previously owned, were up 4.3 percent through August, the latest data available, according to the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.
The Realtors reported 13,010 closed sales during the period, compared with 12,472 the first eight months of 2016, in Oklahoma City, and from Norman and Blanchard south, to Edmond and Piedmont north, to Yukon and Tuttle west, and Luther and Harrah east.
Rising costs
Appleton said the effects of the unresolved U.S.-Canada softwood lumber trade agreement are being felt by builders as well as buyers.
The Random Length Framing Lumber Composite Price ended last week at $436 per 1,000 board feet, 22.5 percent higher than a year ago. The average new house contains about 14,000 board feet of lumber.
But framing lumber price increases affect prices for other, related materials and products, Appleton said, and builders are passing the increases along to buyers.
“It’s something we’ve felt here and new buyers are going to feel it, as well,” he said.