Growth slow for new home sales in county
WEST PALM BEACH — Homebuilding, once a shining star of Palm Beach County’s economy, has been invisible since the Great Recession.
New homes account for a mere 4 percent of home sales in Palm Beach County, said David Cobb, regional director of Metrostudy, a housing research firm. The condo crash deterred developers from putting up towers, and zoning hurdles hamper big suburban developments.
Even with a resurgent economy, Palm Beach County housing starts remain at a fraction of pre-bust levels, and Cobb sees little sign of a turnaround. Large proposed projects, such as the Minto West development on a former citrus grove and Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens, face political opposition.
“We’re going to have a lot crunch in Palm Beach Coun- ty,” Cobb said Wednesday night during a Gold Coast Builders Association event hosted by The Palm Beach Post. “We just don’t have a supply of ready-tobuild-on lots.”
Still, Cobb and David Crowe, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, see reasons for optimism. One bright spot: An improving economy.
Job creation has accelerated, and consumer confidence is back. Crowe forecasts the U.S. economy will grow by 3.4 percent this year.
Another factor creating demand for homes: All those millennials have to go somewhere. Fully 52 percent of South Florida millennials live with relatives, Crowe said.
Now that the job market for young people is improving, they’ll move out — first to an apartment, then to a house.
“All the preference studies show they want to own a home,” Crowe said.
Meanwhile, Crowe said, millennials’ love affair with urban lifestyles has been overplayed. Cobb agreed. “Millennials will behave like their boomer parents,” Cobb said. “They will buy a house, and they will move to the suburbs.”