September 09, 2019
Fewer Regulations Means More Housing Starts
A report by Realtor.com in April conveyed a sense of dismay that, nationwide, the amount of housing construction being done has slowed down just in time to be a large problem. It pointed to US Census data revealing that, compared to the April previous, almost 10 percent fewer homes had seen construction started but not yet completed. But the report did manage to find a silver lining in the data: ten cities, including one in one of our service areas, where housing construction is actually still on the rise. These cities bode well for both home-purchasers and investors, not least because an increase in inventory in an era of falling mortgage prices means more people will be able to find their ways into homes in these areas. And the data also reveals that, for the most part, the amount of construction going on is directly associated with a relative paucity of regulatory hoops through which construction companies must leap in order to do business.
Among the top ten cities where the most housing construction is occurring one tends to find metropolitan areas in high demand, where jobs are plentiful and there are a good number of amenities. The majority of these places are in the South or the Southwest—areas where the cities have room to grow, where construction labor is cheaper for various reasons, where land generally costs less, and where, as mentioned above, regulations tend to be less numerous.
That said, New York City and Los Angeles did make the list—because of their sheer size, not because construction has actually increased (it has decreased in these areas, overall, but there’s always going to be a lot of construction in these gigantic cities relative to just about everywhere else in the nation).
Among these construction boom cities, our service area of Orlando, Florida came in at eighth place. First place went to Dallas, Texas; second to Houston, Texas; third to New York, New York; fourth to Atlanta, Georgia; fifth to Phoenix, Arizona; sixth to Los Angeles, California; seventh to Austin, Texas; ninth to Seattle, Washington; and tenth to Washington, DC.
So it’s a good time to buy in Orlando. At Topouzis & Associates, P.C., our goal is to put our considerable experience and expertise to use in ensuring that any title we service is issued to buyers clear of defect. Contact us if you want our professional judgment backed up with a solid insurance plan, whether in Florida, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts.
