Building a New Home – How Long Will It Take?

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It is a proven theory that in the beginning, home buyers tend to want to look at existing homes in their search for the right investment for themselves and their families.  Existing homes normally have a lot of “stuff” in them that help people visualize the space of the home, the placement of furniture, and the livability of the home.  However, even first-time home buyers will move on to considering buying a brand new home vs. buying a resale home.  In this decision there are considerations of the home’s age, the quality of its parts, the excellence of the building process by a 17-1704 Audubon Parkway Rear Exteriorcertain builder, and the new home community experience that goes along with building a new home if they decide to buy in a subdivision.  These factors all contribute to the decision to “build instead of buy” a new home.  At some point, a buyer will ask when building a new home, how long will it take?

If a new home buyer is unfamiliar with the home building process, there are many questions that arise during the process from the new home design, the selections available from which to choose during the construction phase, the walk-through and home inspection, the financing, and even the closing of the real estate transaction.  A good builder will have an easy-to-understand step-by-step plan to implement with each of their new home buyers to guide them through the entire home building process.  One of the main questions that comes up is “how long is this going to take?”  Different builders have different timelines for building a “home from scratch.”  It also depends on the size and customizations to the home.

The Census Bureau conducted a survey called the 2014 Survey of Construction (SOC) that established the average time of completion of construction of a new home.  7 months was the timeline that the survey discovered with 25 days from the signed contract to the start of the project and approximately 6 months to complete the job. Nationwide, the factors that affect this time period include the housing category, the geographic location, and the 1704 Audubon Parkway Under Constructionmetropolitan status – density of housing and population in a particular area.

Particularly, a single-family house built by a builder took the least amount of time, according to the survey, 6 months; while an owner contractor took approximately 11.5 months – the longest time recorded by the survey.  Single-family homes that were built relying on all outside sub-contractors took approximately 8 months to build from permit to completion.  Specifically, in the Greater New Orleans area, the average time quoted by the Census Bureau it takes to build a new home in this area is 7 months.  The “moral” of the story is to check with your builder to find out how he builds the home by asking if he uses his own employees, if he has established subs he uses for the job, if everything is contracted, and how long he or she will take to build your new home.  It should never be a problem for a builder to answer these specific questions for you before you move forward with a contract or the building process.

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Continued Growth of New Home Sales in 2015

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New home sales in the South region of the United States increased by 4.5% in the month of November – an optimistic statistic for one of the slower real estate months of the year.  This statistic shows the continued growth of new home sales in 2015.  Overall, new home sales were higher by 14.5% compared to the 11 months of 2014 at this time.  New home inventories are at an all-time high since January, 2010 at 232,000.

A one-time anomaly that is affecting existing home sales and new home sales is the mandatory system change of 1-lot-199-bedic-creek-exterior-front-1home closing implemented by the United States government at the 1st of October.  As of October 1st, all home loan applications taken after this date had to adhere to a new system and procedure that slowed down the mortgage approval-to-close process.  This new process informs home buyers every single step of the financing process to ensure that they are fully aware of the financial responsibility that they are undertaking in their home purchase.  Because of this, the closings of existing homes was delayed by several weeks as lenders learned and implemented the new system.  Title companies also had to adjust to the process as they were required to respond to documentation that normally had been handled differently in past closings.

The effect on sales at the end of 2015 was apparent as existing home closing number stagnated.  The overflow effect was that home buyers, which typically start looking at existing homes first, were delayed in making purchasing decisions.  Therefore, new home sales were affected by those same home buyers turning to a new home purchase vs. an existing home purchase.  However, even with these delays and anomalies, the new home, real estate market is thriving in 2015 – all numbers year-over-year comparatively are on the rise and show no sign of slowing down.

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A Strong Housing Market Affects Growth in St. Tammany Parish

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St. Tammany Parish is seeing the benefits and struggles of growth as it relates to the strong housing market.  It is projected that the parish population will increase from the current 250,000 to approximately 460,000 by the year 2030. Many fear the growth will lead to a look of “Anywhere U.S.A.” with separate commercial and residential developments.

Not only do experts fear it will lead to a non-aesthetically pleasing look, but it will also lead to horrible traffic problems. St. Tammany is more susceptible to this problem because everyone living in the parish has to drive 4-206 W. Longview Court Wall of Windowseverywhere they want to go. The national average of trips made by people alone in a vehicle is 70% but in St. Tammany, it is 82%.  With the growth and sprawling suburban expansion comes more roads being built, which will only increase the number and length of St. Tammany residents’ trips.

St. Tammany parish government and a company called Greater New Orleans Inc. are working towards a solution to struggles with a growing population.  They sponsored a panel of experts from the Urban Land Institute (ULI), housed in Washington D.C., to study the parish as it relates to future development, land-use strategies and hardiness to flooding and hurricanes.  According to panel Chairman Jim Heid, “the object was to provide objective and unbiased views on land use challenges.”

In a meeting held at the parish government complex north of Mandeville, the concept of a “village in the woods” was most favorable.  This concept brings the residential and commercial land use together through a pedestrian friendly development that focuses on using the natural environment. This will give residents the choices of walking, bicyclingGinger or carpooling to destinations.

The panel recommended the development could potentially be located in the area between Interstate 12 and Louisiana 36 north of Lacombe, including Louisiana 1088 and 454. Fortunately the parish already has several areas to look upon as role models for this “village in the woods” concept. TerraBella located off Bootlegger Road in Covington, the planned development Tamanend, off of Louisiana 434 and downtown Covington already project this concept with their mixed-use development including apartments, single family houses, shops and other businesses.

Stakeholders are supportive of this concept and according to Alan Razak, a member of the panel, “strong political will and some risk taking” will be the only way this vision will come to fruition.  Parish Planning Director Sidney Fontenot sees potential in other areas such as land north of Lacombe where the Northshore Technical Community College project is beginning and the Goodbee area located west of Covington.

To sum it up, the panel recommends that parish leaders update St. Tammany Parish’s comprehensive plan for the future by adding to the land with mixed-use developments. Fontenot states, “I think the next step is at what level do we go from allowing it, encouraging it to mandating it. That’s a major policy discussion for the elected officials in concert with input from the citizens.”

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Bedico Creek Christmas Social

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RSVP to kellywaltemath@gmail.com.

An All-Inclusive Christmas Event at Bedico Creek Preserve

Bedico Creek Pool Pavilion  

Saturday, December 12, 2015
1:00PM – 3:00PM

 Santa & Mrs. Clause Are Coming to Spread the Joy of the Season!

They will be reading of Christmas stories, offer balloon making, face painting and more for this family-friendly event!

Whether you have children or not, we welcome you to attend as it is a great opportunity to meet your fellow neighbors!

RSVP to kellywaltemath@gmail.com.

Home Buyers to Consider Healthcare When Buying in St. Tammany Parish

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When choosing where to build a new home, build a custom home, or buy a new home, home buyers will want to carefully consider the region and area that they are moving into.  Many considerations come into play which include population, crime, age range, the commute, suburban sprawl, traffic, schools, and medical facilities.  When deciding in which neighborhood you would like to live, you definitely want to think about the quality of medical care that you and your family will have access to should a health emergency affect your lives.  Bedico Creek Preserve is located in the heart of West St. Tammany Parish which is the home to 2 major hospitals, several specialized hospitals including 2 heart hospitals, and multiple specialty clinics from which to choose your healthcare.

One of the major hospitals is Lakeview Regional Medical Center which is located approximately 10 miles from Bedico Creek in Mandeville.  This hospital was recognized as a ‘Top Performer’ on Key Quality Measures® by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States.

Lakeview Regional Medical CenterThe excellence achieved by this hospital included sustaining escellence in accountability measure performance for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, stroke, and perinatal care.  Lakeview Regional Medical Center was one of 1,043 hospitals to receive this award nationwide with a total of 3,300 eligible hospitals considered.  This is not the first time that Lakeview has been recognized for this award.  For the past five years straight, the hospital has been one of only 43 eligible hospitals to maintain this high level of service and excellence.

Three criteria are considered in awarding this prestigious honor:

Achieving cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures;
Achieving performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure where there were at least 30 denominator cases; and
Having at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and (within that measure set) all applicable individual accountability measures had a performance rate of 95 percent or above.

“We are proud to be acknowledged among an elite group of like-minded facilities,” Bret Kolman, Lakeview Regional Chief Executive Officer, said. “This recognition highlights the dedication of our physicians and staff to provide the safest and most effective health care standards to each of our patients.”

Click Here for the Source of the Information.