Building blooms
Homebuilders are seeing a substantial uptick of buyer interest in their properties, just in time for the busiest season of the year — spring.
Oklahoma City homebuilders lost a tiny bit of steam in the first quarter compared to the first three months of last year, but the 1.2 percent drop in the number of building permits was hardly noticeable.
Most important is the comparison of the first part of this year to 2016, when the first quarter rivaled the near-depth of the housing slump and Great Recession.
Two years ago, builders had started just 990 homes by March 31, which was 14 percent fewer than the first quarter of this year.
Activity has improved, despite headwinds including rising mortgage interest rates, rising construction costs, other inflation — and President Donald Trump’s saber rattling for a trade war with China.
“March was a great month for us — our best month in 2018,” said Ali Farzaneh, co-owner of Home Creations in Moore. “Year to date, we are higher than last year and our trajectory indicates more sales and closings than in 2017.
“The price increase in raw material and interest rate has created a sense of urgency for people to buy sooner than later.”
Taking the long view, of the past 10 years, 2018, with 1,153 home starts so far, started most like 2008, which saw 1,166 by the end of March.
The statistics were compiled by The Builder Report by Norman-based Dharma Inc., which tracks homebuilding in Oklahoma City, unincorporated Oklahoma County, Bethany, Blanchard, Choctaw, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore, Mustang, Newcastle, Noble, Norman, Shawnee and Yukon.
Maintaining pace with 2017 will be good for the Parade of Homes Spring Festival April 27-29 and May 4-6, presented by the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association. New houses will be open free to the public from 1 to 7 p.m. each day.
“Since the beginning of the year, traffic has been up substantially,” said Dusty Hutchison, owner of Alder Fine Homes in Edmond and parade chairman. “We’re pretty excited about the parade this year. We have over 100 homes entered.”
Spring comes on strong
Fickle spring weather hasn’t deterred home shoppers, said Lindsay Haltom, director of marketing for Homes by Taber in Oklahoma City.
“Even with the hot-oneday, cold-the-next Oklahoma weather we are having, people have frequently been out in all 20 of our neighborhoods,” Haltom said.
Haltom said “everything is optimistic and positive in the market for us right now,” but that shoppers are being alerted to changing conditions.
“We are frequently reminding our customers about the continued increase in interest rates,” she said. “Because of these gradual increases, as they wait to make a purchasing decision, their purchasing power and the amount they will be able to afford will decrease.
“Between the interest rates and the tariffs, the same home that someone is able to purchase now will cost them more later. A half a point can make a big difference in their monthly (principal and interest).”
Buyers keep coming, said Steve Shoemaker,vice president of sales and marketing for Ideal Homes of Norman.
“The spring season is typically our busiest time of year, but this spring is starting off especially strong. Traffic has been really strong in 2018 — up from a year ago,” he said. “The first quarter was a record quarter for sales in the 28-year history of Ideal Homes.”
Shoemaker said Ideal Homes had exceeded 40 percent of projected sales for the year by the end of March.
“We’re seeing 30 percent of our sales starting as online inquiry,” he said. “We also see a high level of motivation from buyers driven by pent-up demand and urgency from homebuyers who are worried about rising interest rates.
“On top of that, Ideal Homes entered the year with a strong supply of lots and inventory of completed homes. There’s a lot to be positive about.”