New home construction through June in Wisconsin was described as amazing by a local home builder and remodeler.
Brandon Bartow of Bartow Builders tells Seehafer News, “New home starts were up 38% in the first six months as compared to the year before. The interesting thing about it is that even with high lumber prices, new (housing) starts were up that high.”
And, many people are asking this question. “Why is the market able to sustain such growth when building material, specifically wood, was at its’ highest?”
Bartow replied, “What they’re hearing about is the lumber package, which is anywhere between 10-to-12% of the total cost to build a home. So, it’s relatively unimportant when you’re looking at it. Yes, it’s way high for the ‘sticks’ but if that’s only 12% of your entire building package, there is no reason to use that as one of the reasons not to build.
In addition, he points out the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage is 2.875 % and rates have never been this low.
Locally, Bartow estimated Manitowoc County’s new home starts were about 10-percentage points below the state average for the 1st six months of 2021, at approximately 25-to-28%. But, he explained, “when you drive around the city you’ll notice some of the lots developed 10-to-12 years ago are filling up, so it’s kind of nice to see that type of activity happening here because it’s been a long time coming.”
Bartow says nationwide, we are a million housing units short. So right now, you hear about people putting offers in for 10, sometimes 15% more than the asking price on a home. With that scenario, the National Association of Homebuilders does not believe that we will go through the same housing crisis in 2010 when the market crashed, and the banking industry was a mess.
So, even with all these apartments and homes being built we’re still short a million (units) across the country.
