10-18-2013 07:57 PM

HBA boss: Residential construction momentum will carry into 2014




Kansas City's residential construction market is getting back on its feet after years of slow going caused by the recession, and homebuilders are gaining confidence that momentum gained during 2013 will carry them on to even better days in 2014.
Fred Delibero, CEO of Lee's Summit homebuilder Summit Custom Homes LLC, said the company is experiencing its best business since its founding in 2002.
In 2013, Summit expects to sell about 180 new single-family homes and to have about 215 new single-family homes permitted for construction. Delibero said that would be a 60 percent increase from last year's sales total and a 20 percent increase in permitting. Next year, he expects to sell about 215 homes and have as many as 250 homes permitted for construction.
Delibero, who also is president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, said he was encouraged by the association's report on September permitting, which indicates that the residential construction market is set for its best year since 2007, and he thinks area homebuilders will pull more than 4,200 permits by year's end.
RELATED: HBA report: 2013 is set to be strongest year for homebuilding since 2007
If he's right, that would mean almost 1,000 more homes were started in 2013 than the previous year. However, that spike in demand has some negative consequences for the larger community of homebuilders.
As the September report from the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors indicated, the supply of homes in Kansas City is shrinking as more consumers make investments they might not have done during the recession.
Delibero said that has exacerbated existing shortages of labor and building supplies. Builders are working through it, he said, but the shortages are causing construction times to run about 12 weeks longer than normal. He said those problems should fade during the winter months and into 2014 as the market for labor and supplies stabilize.

  • Page 1
  • 2

|View All
Austin reports about construction, transportation, engineering and architecture.


Continue Reading >>