New Home Sales

[TheSpecialist]

Originally Posted by Rmarsh

When the economy is in recession or sluggish, wealthy people are still going to build that large custom home...or second home.
The company I work for has several large tracts of land to be developed into house lots. Some are large estate lots in rural areas for custom homes up to a million dollars, and others are minimum size lots for much smaller homes.
Right now and for the last few years it is has been mostly the latter, working class and blue collar types, their dream of owning their own home coming true. From my perspective, hard working people who make good decisions will always succeed, and in this very good economic times they are buying new homes in record numbers.
Lazy and unmotivated people will always make excuses for failure.
Poor planing and decision making has repercussions.

Lots of smart people holding onto tracts, waiting for that right moment

[Rmarsh]

Developing tracts of land into buildable house lots can be profitable, but there are many pitfalls and obstacles to overcome, and timing is critical.
There is so much involved in the process, tens of thousands of dollars will need to be spent before a single lot can be sold or built upon, and it can take years for approval and permiting from the town.
Starting with the high cost of survey and engineering for roads, planning for utilities ... sewer water gas and electric and then there's the wetlands issues.... Presenting a subdivision proposal to the town officials requires attending a crapload of meetings with an engineer and lawyer in tow.
When a loan is involved, more tens of thousands of dollars in interest, and then real estate taxes.....all this and more before a single dollar in profit can be made. Nothing simple about it.