Builders Off to Early Spring Selling Season.
The spring selling season is already heating up for home builders, with sales activity increasing and some builders slightly increasing home prices, reports Barclays Capital.
“We believe the spring selling season has arrived strongly enough to kick-start a positive feedback loop in housing for the first time since 2005,” Barclays Capital analysts reported.
Analysts with Barclays Capital project 1 million housing starts by 2013. The analysts project that housing starts will return to 1.7 million — a more normal amount by historical standards for the sector — by 2015. Last year marked one of the worst selling years for home builders on record.
Some home builders have already started rising prices slightly by about $1,000 to $3,000 due to the increase in demand.
Analysts attribute some of the pick up in demand to the rise in the nation’s employment rate recently.
“Job creation has been considerably better this fall than it was last year, which we believe will lead to a stronger, more sustained spring selling season,” analysts say.
Source: “Homebuilder Spring Selling Season off to Solid Start,” HousingWire (March 12, 2012)