New home construction activity in Flagler County has already climbed this year to the highest level since 2007 and, with one month to go, builders in Volusia County appear poised to reach the same milestone.
Flagler County home builders pulled 42 permits for new homes last month, twice the number they pulled the same month last year.
November marked the 16th month in a row that more permits were issued for new homes in Flagler County than in the same month the previous year. For the year to date, 405 permits have been issued for new homes in the county, up 83 percent from a year ago, according to Jason DeLorenzo, director of government affairs for the Flagler Home Builders Association.
“We're well above last year's numbers,” said Mike Sawdai, vice president of operations for SeaGate Homes in Palm Coast, which currently has 35 homes under construction in Flagler County.
In Volusia County, builders pulled 90 permits for new homes in November, down slightly from 94 the same month a year ago, according to the Volusia Building Industry Association, whose permit data is compiled by HBW Inc. in DeBary.
For the year to date, 1,085 permits have been issued for new homes in Volusia, up 55 percent from a year ago.
Anthony Viscomi of Viscomi Construction, an Ormond Beach builder of luxury custom homes, said business for his company is “the best it's been in well over 10 years.”
Area builders attribute the increase in sales to a combination of the improving economy and still relatively low interest rates and prices for new homes.
Sawdai said a number of his customers have been people who were interested in new homes earlier but were unable to commit to making a purchase until they could sell their existing home.
Now that the housing market is recovering, “We routinely get calls from people saying 'Hey, my house sold,'” Sawdai said. “I'm meeting with some prospective buyers this week that have been wanting to build for a couple of years.”
Many of the new home buyers are people relocating to Florida from the Northeast, builders say.
Viscomi said some of his company's recent sales have been to people who have benefited from the improving stock market and have chosen to cash out some of their stock holdings to invest in a new home instead.
Scott Vanacore, president of Vanacore Homes in Ormond Beach, said his company currently has more than 80 homes in Volusia and Flagler counties either under construction or in the process of getting permitted. “We're extremely busy,” he said, noting that sales for his company are up by more than 40 percent compared with 2012.
Robbie Richmond, vice president of Keystone Homes in Ormond Beach, said his company has 15 homes under construction in Flagler County with another 12 in the design phase. The company also has one home under construction in Volusia County.
“The majority of our buyers are baby boomers who are coming from the Northeast and are moving down to retire,” he said.
While Keystone is based in Volusia County, Richmond said his company primarily builds in Flagler County because it has a larger inventory of available house lots as opposed to Volusia, where most of the lots are “tied up by national and (larger) regional builders.”
Area builders say once a new home has been put under contract, it can typically take another two to four months before a building permit is issued.
Based on his company's sales heading into the new year, Richmond said, “Our permit numbers are rising and it's looking like next year is definitely going to surpass this year.”
No comments:
Post a Comment