Metro Atlanta homebuilding is looking up

As housing market gets healthy, construction is expected to grow.

Expect continued, steady growth in new home construction in metro Atlanta as the housing market is projected to grow healthier.

Unless things turn around, the trends are good, said Steve Palm, president of Smart Numbers, an Atlanta analysis firm.

“The market is shifting very positively,” Palm said.

With relatively few existing homes for sale, new construction is increasingly important, and building has picked up in metro Atlanta.

Palm said. “I think it will go up 9 percent next year. I think we could get 30 percent up if the House is won by Republicans” (in November).

Palm spoke June 12 to a housing conference that drew several hundred builders and other real estate professionals to the Cobb Galleria. Also featured was John Hunt, a senior analyst at Smart Numbers and the president of ViaSearch.

Palm has his worries – besides the politics.

Among them: Fear that the price of building materials may rise faster than the ability of buyers to pay. Also, the huge funds that bought up depressed housing might freeze their holdings. Or a crisis in the Middle East might spur soaring energy prices, ripping off consumer spending power and tipping the economy into recession .

The region’s housing industry is still recovering from the crash caused by the Great Recession. Inventories have been low and now are beginning to catch up to demand.

“Inventory is going up .2 or .3 percentage points each month so each three months, so our supply of homes ought to go up about 1 percent,” he said.

A sizeable number of Atlanta home purchases are by people moving to the area.

One-third of the new townhomes are being built in the north half of Fulton County.

Even in the Internet era, a significant minority of potential buyers use print information find out about homesfor-sale.

And despite the immense amount of information available on the Web, the vast majority of homebuyers still use agents in their search and purchase.

‘I think (new construction) will go up 9 percent next year.’

President Smart Numbers

Steve Palm of Smart Numbers says trends look good in the housing market, barring a setback.