OK, You Win, Heres The Rest Of The New Home Story!
Haven't you had enough doom and gloom? A lot of you let me know that you wanted to hear what I left out of Lesley Mitchell's Salt Lake Tribune article. I don't know why, it's more of the same.
Pretty bad news about some pretty good Utah home builders. The bottom line is, they all had a pretty bad nine months building homes, (or not building homes) along the Wasatch Front in 2007.
Heres what Lesely's article had to say, with some help from the Construction Monitor, and a little insight from me.
Woodside Homes:
New Home permits were down 49%. Woodside permited 432 houses in the first 9 months of 06 and only 219 through September of 07.
To pump up sales, the company is offering $15,000 free option incentives in the Foxboro-Exeter South subdivision in North Salt Lake. I bet you can do better than that at any one of their projects.
Woodside advertises 13 communities for sale in Davis and Weber counties from the $160s, and 6 new communities in North Salt Lake.
Richmond American Homes:
Has been running ads offering upgrades of as much as $35,000, and $3,500 In down payment assistance. The reason?... Richmond American only took out 409 permits in 07, against more than twice that (968) in 06. Richmond only pulled permits for 6 houses this September vs 96 last year.
Last year Richmond almost tied with Ivory Homes as Utah's largest home builder. This year although they are still building in 30 projects around the Salt Lake Valley they are a distant second.
Richmond American is currently building in West Jordan @ Sycamore Grove, and Daybreak, In Herriman @ Ft. Herriman Cove, and Castlewood Estates in Riverton.
Hamlet Homes:
Last year, through September Hamlet had taken out permits for 118 homes, down from the 304 of last year. To bolster sales, the company is offering free upgrades worth $10,000 and an option of no housing payment for 4 months.
Hamlet builds homes in the $200 to $400 thousand dollar range in a number of areas around Salt Lake including Daybreak in South Jordan, Suncrest in Draper, and Waverly Station in Murray.
Ivory Homes:
Utah's largest Home Builder suffered a 21% decline in home starts. Even though Ivory managed to build a very respectable 765 houses through the first 9 months of 07, September, the latest month, accounted for only 28 of those.
Ivory has over 31 decorated Model Homes along the Wasatch Front, with new offerings @ Summerwood, and Summerfield in Riverton, Ivory Crossing in South Jordan, and Benson Mill Crossing in Stansbury Park. Ivory, like other builders has seen continued demand in lower priced homes. One of their newest New Home Communities, Highbury @ Lake Park sold 15 Townhouses in 2 hours in the $175 to $200,000 range.
Fieldstone Homes:
Has one of the smallest declines of any major builder in the Salt Lake Valley, (412 last year, 387 this year). Jerry Abbott, division president says price point is the reason. The company focuses on the first-time home buyers, building in the $185 to $300,000 range.
To increase sales Fieldstone is promoting a loan incentive of 5.3% or only $100 in closing costs.
Abbott is quoted as saying "Were very optimistic about the Utah market"
And so are we, as you can see, this is an absolutely fantastic time to be negotiating for a New Home in the Salt Lake Valley, plenty of inventory, and plenty of motivation. Lets start looking, I know new construction.
If your not working with an agent,( you absolutely should if your looking at new homes,) check out our web-site @ new homes to see what we can do for you, or call @ 801-567-0946.