Hows the New Home Construction Industry In Your Area ?
03-09-2008, 05:31 PM
#32
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here in southern Ca it is not slow it is way past that. Its a dead stop. Boy does it suck. I made real good money as a lead Plumber and I built/sold a few homes on the side as an owner builder. I'm young (24) and didn't realize that the economy would take a big hit and bought my dodge, my wifes accord, built a bigger home to live in and now took a 7 dollar an hour pay cut and travel 160 miles daily round trip to atleast have a job.
03-09-2008, 09:25 PM
#33
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Dan, I'm a dirt guy and here in the Birmingham area it has slowed to a crawl. Things had been rolling along at a break neck pace until this past spring, then the bottom fell out of the market. I've had a good month or so but only because I have one builder who only does custom builds and we started 2 back to back. I've got to bid another by Tuesday but that's about it. Diesel just hit $3.759 and I heard tonight it is supposed to take another big jump tomorrow. If it goes up much more I'm going to have to add a fuel surcharge or go up on my rates somehow. I heard Colorado is booming.
03-10-2008, 03:47 PM
#35
Thats MR Hoss to you buddy!
Commercial construction is going strong here in Austin. We've got several projects coming up in the $100M+ range and a bunch more that we're proposing on. Lots of hotel and condo high rises being built. I'm not that close to the residential industry anymore, but a civil engineer friend of mine who designs subdivisions says that their work has really slowed down over the past year.
On the bright side, if you've got money now is an excellent time to buy some investment properties.
On the bright side, if you've got money now is an excellent time to buy some investment properties.
03-10-2008, 07:30 PM
#36
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Yeah...tell me about it, unfortunately for me I decided to jump into a bigger home last year and have not sold the other one yet (haven't tried...I know better right now) So I am paying double mortgages and double heating and electric bills. That's why this economic slow down is killing me. The wife actually had the nerve to mention selling my bike. On the bright side, it does seem that current homeowners are starting to add on and remodel a little more than I expected. Just this week I got 3 calls for garage builds and 1 for demolition. I bid the one job a little higher than usual (neighborhood / building codes) I was worried about the bid and these people jumped all over it. Now I just have to wait 2 weeks for the city to get off their apples and approve it.
03-10-2008, 07:44 PM
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New construction, well permits, down 30% last I heard from NAHB... Not supposed to come up anytime soon either. The only good thing is inventory is starting to decline.
03-11-2008, 08:18 PM
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Yeah...tell me about it, unfortunately for me I decided to jump into a bigger home last year and have not sold the other one yet (haven't tried...I know better right now) So I am paying double mortgages and double heating and electric bills. That's why this economic slow down is killing me. The wife actually had the nerve to mention selling my bike. On the bright side, it does seem that current homeowners are starting to add on and remodel a little more than I expected. Just this week I got 3 calls for garage builds and 1 for demolition. I bid the one job a little higher than usual (neighborhood / building codes) I was worried about the bid and these people jumped all over it. Now I just have to wait 2 weeks for the city to get off their apples and approve it.
03-11-2008, 08:25 PM
#39
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I'm going to put some moeny back into it and hopefully make a 40,000 profit. I don't want to rent it becuase my dad owns about 8 double houses that he rents out and I have seen the headaches he is constantly having. About 5 years ago anyone with any type of credit bought a house. What's left is mostly the peolpe who don't pay their bills. Heck, the last incident he had the people would not leave even after being evicted. He threatened them and got arrested. The charges got dropped, BUT it just goes to show that the scum of the earth seems to have the upper hand.
That's a headache I don't need. I already have plenty. (married, 2 kids, and employees)
That's a headache I don't need. I already have plenty. (married, 2 kids, and employees)
03-12-2008, 04:02 PM
#40
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They are still building around Sacramento area, but prices have come down big time due to the glut of inventory now. People got into mortgages that they could not afford and could not refinance because the house value went down and that means no equity to get the refi. So they default and the bank takes it back. Now the bank sells the house for pennys on the dollar and that makes the neighbors house value go down because they all go by comps. (caparative housing value sales in your neighborhood) It is just a big perpetual downhill slide now. They have guys starting businesses that take a big bus a drive potential buyers around showing them the weekly homes that are going into foreclosure and coming up for auction. Citys are having neighborhood meetings on how to seek help out of foreclosure.
We have a fleet account that builds trusses and does framing on homes. The manager told us it went from really crazy building to back to normal and it will just take a little time to get the pricing back where it needs to be.
We have a fleet account that builds trusses and does framing on homes. The manager told us it went from really crazy building to back to normal and it will just take a little time to get the pricing back where it needs to be.
10-21-2008, 08:35 PM
#42
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How bout an update guys... Just wanna see how bad it got.
Most places around here went from 1 or 2 building permits a week to 1 or less a month.
I had a contract last year to frame 80 quadplex condos. They said I could have all 80 if I could keep up.
We finished the 6th one January of this year. That's it. The development looks like a ghost town.
Another builder was going to build the same ones and had planned on putting up 3 models and 30 quadplexes in 2008. They put up the 3 models. That's it. They even pulled the site trailer out.
I sure hope SOMETHING happens.
Most places around here went from 1 or 2 building permits a week to 1 or less a month.
I had a contract last year to frame 80 quadplex condos. They said I could have all 80 if I could keep up.
We finished the 6th one January of this year. That's it. The development looks like a ghost town.
Another builder was going to build the same ones and had planned on putting up 3 models and 30 quadplexes in 2008. They put up the 3 models. That's it. They even pulled the site trailer out.
I sure hope SOMETHING happens.
10-22-2008, 10:14 AM
#45
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Still very slow around here, my BIL is a sheetrocker , he hasn't finished a new house in a long time. Hasn't put in a 40 hour week in a while, just small jobs, remodels and repairs.