RACE WAR Flight from the Cities: Home Builder Confidence Hits All-Time High

Jonas Parker

Hooligan

Flight from the Cities: Home Builder Confidence Hits All-Time High
JOHN CARNEY 16 Sep 2020


Homebuilder confidence soared to record high in September as low mortgage rates, locked down amenities, rising crime, closed city schools, and urban rioting sparked a surge in demand for suburban homes.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index rose five points to the new record high of 83, the National Association of Home Builders said Wednesday.

The survey asks builders of single family homes to rate market conditions for the sale of new homes at the present time and in the next six months as well as the traffic of prospective buyers of new homes.
Demand is so strong that the prices of materials, particularly lumber, are increasingly worrying home builders.

“Lumber prices are now up more than 170% since mid-April, adding more than $16,000 to the price of a typical new single-family home,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “That said, the suburban shift for home building is keeping builders busy, supported on the demand side by low interest rates. In another sign of this growing trend, builders in other parts of the country have reported receiving calls from customers in high-density markets asking about relocating.”

NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke called for an increase of domestic lumber production or relief from tariffs on imported lumber in order to avoid a slowdown in the market.
 

raven

TB Fanatic
I have been seriously searching for a home in Oklahoma around the Tulsa area.
Houses are coming on the market and selling in days - with $40 to $50 increases in less than 4 years.

It is very scary. Reminds me of 2007. Lenders must have reduced the mortgage qualification to a mere heartbeat.
Are you alive, then you qualify.

My biggest fear . . . I will find a nice house, get moved in, and the next month the foreclosures start, and within a year I am the only resident left on the street.
 

AlfaMan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
DC Metro area is still going gangbusters on house building. The average house sale in our county is $548,000 last time I checked. Average house on a postage stamp of land too. And apartments here are going up all over the place. It's crazy.
 

Firebird

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I have really been considering selling, as my house is now valued at $500K

However, with this crazy market, it will be a premium to find something else
 

subnet

Boot
I have been seriously searching for a home in Oklahoma around the Tulsa area.
Houses are coming on the market and selling in days - with $40 to $50 increases in less than 4 years.

It is very scary. Reminds me of 2007. Lenders must have reduced the mortgage qualification to a mere heartbeat.
Are you alive, then you qualify.

My biggest fear . . . I will find a nice house, get moved in, and the next month the foreclosures start, and within a year I am the only resident left on the street.
Yeah, the homes that were at their peak in 2007 are now selling at even higher prices..its absurd right now.
 

Krayola

Veteran Member
DH was thinking of interviewing with a company. I checked real estate in the area near the potential new job and it just seemed crazy. Most of the houses on realtor.com were under contract already and when I looked to see how long they were on the market, many of them were going under contract within days to just a couple of weeks. In fact it was rare to see a house on the market for more than 30 days. I am not sure if it was just that area or if the housing market is tight all over.
 

Dozdoats

On TB every waking moment
Lumber prices are now up more than 170% since mid-April

Makes me feel better about all those acres we have in Southern pines in AL ..... leased to and managed by Weyerhaeuser 'til I'm really old.

Resource stocks are where you find resources.
=================================

Demand for Lumber Is Surging. Is Weyerhaeuser a Buy?
CONTRIBUTOR
Brent Nyitray The Motley Fool
PUBLISHED
SEP 11, 2020 11:14AM EDT
/////////////////snip
 

tm1439m

Veteran Member
The houses are selling in about 3 days in our part of Upstate South Carolina according to my realtor neighbor.
 

Sam2

Free Range Prisoner
This is giving me self-doubts since I'm expecting a real estate crash from a severely diminished labor market and what seems to a long and slow roll-out of .gov subsidies and UBI.
 
Top