November 15, 2018
The Recent Rise in New Home Sales
While we’ve seen a recent relative drop in prices and demand for homes, the fact remains that the demand for new homes not long ago reached the highest it has been in nearly a decade. Indeed, the rate of sales of new homes throughout the United State in April 2018 was 11.7 percent higher (at a seasonally-adjusted 662,000) than the April 2017 rate (593,000), according to a report from Housing and Urban Development.
So it will come as no apparent surprise that the amount of money spent on new construction has been four percent higher to this point in 2018 than it was in 2017, according to August figures from the US Census Bureau’s Value of Construction Put in Place Survey.
Yet we do feel it bears noting that, in latter months, much of this heightened figure is accounted for by a rise in public construction—structural work being done by and for governments on the local, state, and federal levels. Meanwhile, new residential construction has instead seen a slight fall in rate over the course of the late Summer and into Fall. Indeed, whereas July’s rate of spending on new residential construction was higher than it was predicted to be in June, August’s rate was lower than it was predicted to be in July.
The housing market inevitably goes through its corrections. However, we do mark it as odd that the rate of spending on new home construction is lower than one might expect given the relatively high average purchase costs for homes of late, which appears in large part to be due to high demand and low supply. This is not typical, and has the result of decreasing the likelihood that potential new homeowners might enter the market.
Older homes are more often subject to issues of title than newly parceled and constructed properties, but title is nonetheless at the heart of every real estate transaction. At Topouzis & Associates, P.C., not only do we offer the services that ensure your title gets conveyed clear of defects, we supply purchasers with Owner’s Policies of title insurance. Contact us if you want your property transfer in Cranston, Rhode Island; Springfield, Massachusetts; or Miami, Florida to go through without a hitch—both before and after closing.
