Find out about the latest news in Madisonville, Louisiana as well as St. Tammany Parish. We will keep you “tuned in” to all of the information about Southeast Louisiana as well as the real estate industry in general. Many new home buyers are concerned about the market, mortgage information, and builder trends. We plan on keeping you as up to date as possible on these and many more topics. There is a lot going on in the Greater New Orleans area, so you will have plenty to read!

10-Year Steady Growth in St. Tammany Parish Housing Market

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A gradual, steady, and continual increase in residents, new households, and home prices is what the St. Tammany Parish Economic Development Foundation (EDF) encountered in a study done of the housing market’s recovery in the parish.  From 2003 – 2013, St. Tammany Parish’s population grew from 205,883 – 242,333.  Home prices, which2-246-w-longview-court-exterior-2 rose after Hurricane Katrina to later plummet during the Recession have now seen an increase for the first time since 2007.  The average price of a home in St. Tammany Parish in 2013 was $225,540, up from when the housing market hit bottom in 2009.

The St. Tammany Parish EDF also found that the amount of building permits issued for builders in St. Tammany Parish rose 78% since the market bottomed out in 2009.  Building permits and existing home sales have increased every year since 2010, they found.  Existing homes sold at a 44% higher rate since 2009, according to the report.

Steve Dixon, president of the North Shore Area Board of Realtors, agrees that the market has stabilized, but he thinks the recovery will take a little longer. New housing starts were so scant in the depth of the recession that even modest growth appears significant when looking at percentages, he said.

green-spaces-madisonville-subdivisionAt Bedico Creek Preserve, a master planned subdivision in St. Tammany Parish, we have seen a phenomenal demand for lots, homes, and building custom homes.  Our clients are eager to invest in our community with one of our neighborhoods selling out in just over 1 year.  Bedico Creek has since developed lots ready to build in 4 new Neighborhoods, one of which is a builder-exclusive neighborhoods of homes for sale called Cypress Crossing.

At Bedico Creek Preserve, we not only sell new custom homes, but we also sell a unique lifestyle just minutes from shopping, dining, and entertainment in the mall district of Highway 21 and easy access to downtown Covington, Louisiana.  Our Conservation Community is developed so that homes that are built and amenities are nestled among and around the green spaces, waterways, and trees.  We have designed and built hiking and biking trails that wind throughout a natural wildlife habitat so that when you move to our subdivision, you get to enjoy all that nature has to offer while being able to easily get to your place of work or even downtown New Orleans. If you have not had the chance already, come Visit Our Community or Contact Us at 985-845-4200 or E-mail [email protected].

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A Bright Future for St. Tammany Parish Housing Market

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In a report that measures population growth, parish employment, apartment rents and sales tax collections, the St. Tammany Parish Economic Development Foundation found that in the past 10 years, the Northshore has new-home-constructionexperienced a rise and fall in economic conditions in regards to the housing market.  Just after Hurricane Katrina, there was a kind of “Northshore Flight” that occurred for people displaced by the hurricane.  Because of the insurmountable demand for a place to live, the land and homes in St. Tammany Parish were “snatched up” at a pace that exceeded any population growth before or since.  During a rigorous two years of home sales from 2005 to 2007, St. Tammany Parish’s average home values peaked at $248,682.  Then, as New Orleans began a steady recovery, the demand for housing on the Northshore tapered off, literally into the Recession.

The new study has nothing but good news for the real estate market in St. Tammany Parish.  It states that according to statistics from 2009 – 2013, the market has stabilized.  Average home values are at $225,540, up from $212,927 in 2012.  Greater news is that building permits have increased by a whopping 78% from 2009 to 2013.  Also, new new-home-construction-2homes sales have increased by 44% in the same period of time.  According to the National Association of Home Builders, on a national level, the overall “time on the market” or the month’s supply of homes has leveled off to 4 – 6 months, which means there is a 4 to 6-month supply of homes available indicating a healthy housing market.

“Hurricane Katrina changed the market,” said the foundation’s CEO Brenda Bertus. “Housing sales rose dramatically in the wake of the storm until 2007, when sales and construction both dropped significantly. It now appears that St. Tammany’s housing market is stabilizing.”

The health of the housing market seems to be intact in that reports are coming out of Washington D.C. that plans for down payment assistance and new parameters on FHA loans are being discussed as well as looser credit regulations now that the mortgage industry has been pulled back on track.  Also, good news locally for local builders and developers is that the population in St. Tammany Parish has risen from 205,883 to 242,333 in the last 10 years – definitely increasing the demand for housing and new homes for sale.  More good news is that the average income of a family in St. Tammany Parish has grown just over 45% in 10 years rising from $67,273 to $97,639.  With families who can afford a mortgage, loosening credit conditions, down payment assistance, more demand than ever for new homes, and the increase in new home sales, St. Tammany Parish’s real estate industry faces a bright future going into 2015.  To find out more about new homes for sale and new lots for sale in Madisonville, Louisiana, Contact Bedico Creek at 985-845-4200 or E-mail [email protected].

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New Construction Leads the Charge for Employment

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16,700 construction jobs were added in November, 2014 for the residential construction sector.  On average, the new home construction industry had been adding 11,000 jobs per month with a total of 348,300 positions after the 2-804-green-leaf-circle-exterior-2“posted” end of the Recession.  These latest statistics showed that over the last 12 months, the construction industry as a whole has created 122,000 jobs.  Employment nationwide hit its 4th highest increase during the month of October according to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), bringing the hiring rate to 3.6% of total employment.  Since 2011, the hiring rate has bounced around from 3.1% to 3.5%, but it has now risen above that number because employment in the United States in November rose unexpectedly to top out at 321,000 jobs added during the month.  The average number of overall jobs added to the economy each month has been around 233,000, so this number showed strong economic growth for the month.

The positive upward flow of job additions in the overall economy is directly helping the real estate industry in that family income is on the rise as well as household wealth.  With construction lending easing up, builders are able to finance more and more loans to build new homes for sale.  With this increase in construction activity comes a shortfall of construction workers.  As of the end of October, there were approximately 136,000 open, unfilled, construction sector jobs, also according to the BLS JOLTS and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Analysis.  This number was up from 112,000 total open positions in September.  An overall look at construction employment shows that 2.332 million people are employed doing construction work with 677,000 builders and 1.655 million contractors and residential specialty trade workers.

With an increase of demand for homes for sale, Bedico Creek Preserve in St. Tammany Parish has experienced phenomenal growth throughout the year 2014.  We have added and are continuing to add 7 new Neighborhoods with both lots for sale and homes for sale.  We have also welcomed approximately 8 – 10 more builders to our community throughout the year who are constructing new homes for sale priced from the high $200’s to over $1 million +.  If you have not had an opportunity to visit this new home, master planned subdivision in St. Tammany Parish, you will want to Take a Tour of our homes and lots.  Call 985-845-4200 or E-mail [email protected] to schedule your visit today!

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Custom Home Starts Increase Almost 14% Year-Over-Year

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St. Tammany Parish is an “odd duck” when it comes to new home builders.  In larger metro real estate markets, builders tend to build inventory or spec homes for sale which are homes based on several established floorplans that are built the same every time but offer home buyers selections such as cabinetry and countertops, flooring, and paint colors.  Many mid-size to large home building companies will build in multiple 2-404-s-fairway-exteriorsubdivisions and have floorplans that already fit the “footprint” of the lot sizes in these neighborhoods, so that when a home buyer visits a specific community, they know that the already built spec homes and model homes that they tour will be much the same as the home that they are going to buy.

While there is nothing “wrong” with this approach to home building, builders in St. Tammany Parish are a little bit less “assembly-line” builders and very much more creative and custom builders.  Our parish does not necessarily trend with the rest of metro areas in that most of the builders on the Northshore in the Greater New Orleans area build a smaller number of homes, and the homes that they build are definitely more custom.  Because of this, during the Recession, building companies in St. Tammany Parish that had been established in the area for many years and had a good “word of mouth” base for advertising were able to continue to work in the industry they loved by building custom homes.  According the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), this trend has continued post Recession: the number of starts of homes built on an owner’s land, with either the owner or a builder acting as the general contractor was at 48,000 during the 2nd quarter (a record high) and at 47,000 during the 3rd quarter.

This was a nationwide study, so it shows that the trend of building semi-custom and fully custom homes may have “caught on” a little during the lean times.  Production builders are still a vital part of the real estate industry as they are able to offer first-time home buyers and 2nd time home buyers a quality-built product at an affordable price.  However, it seems that custom homes are holding onto a part of the market that is larger than it was before the Recession.

At Bedico Creek in St. Tammany Parish, we have many of those semi-custom and fully custom home builders building new homes and new custom homes right in our master planned community.  With the real estate market starting to be very active again, builders are able to follow their creative path in designing gorgeous floorplans of all shapes and sizes on the unique and view-filled lots that are sprinkled throughout our Conservation Community.  If it is your dream to live amongst nature but still be able to enjoy shopping, dining, and entertainment of a regular city (Covington, Louisiana), Visit Bedico Creek to learn more about our convenient location with a variety of lots and homes from which to choose.  Call 985-845-4200 or E-mail [email protected].

Click Here for the Source of the Information.

Average New Home Sizes Drop – Good News for Real Estate

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An interesting result of the Recession was a distinct division of home buyer types which resulted in a housing trend that is beginning to “correct itself.”  During the Recession, the housing market experienced an increase in the average square footage of homes because more established1-293-w-longview-court-exterior households were able to spend money and build semi-custom and fully custom homes for themselves that inevitably had more square footage than normal homes in a healthy real estate market.  The reason for this is because these solid households tended to have high equity and strong household wealth numbers and were able to continue to live and spend as they always had while still being conservative because of the economy.

These households come to the forefront in statistics during the Recession because their spending habits and building habits were the only ones that could be scrutinized.  In a normal market, first-time home buyers would make up a large chunk of the market and middle class (2nd and 3rd time home buyers) would make up another substantial portion of the home buying industry as well.  These two sectors of real estate would keep average home sizes smaller than custom home buyers and builders because they would not have carte blanche when it came to a borrowing or financing budget to build their new home.

Because of this unique situation that hasn’t been seen in many years, the average size of a custom, single-family home during the Recession rose 1-105-st-calais-exterior-1to 2,651 and the overall median rose to 2,472.  According to Census Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design and National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) analysis of the 3rd quarter of 2014, these numbers have dropped from 2,651 to 2,601 and from 2,472 to 2,414.  This is actually good news for the housing market because it means that lower income home buyers are entering and building / buying homes again.  For a real estate market to survive and thrive, it must have all types of buyers because, like a mutual fund, it has compounded returns on investment when first-time home buyers become second and third-time home buyers.

At Bedico Creek Preserve in St. Tammany Parish, we offer a total of 7 Neighborhoods which offer a variety of lot sizes and home sizes for every type of buyer imaginable.  If you can design it, one of our 17 builders can build it!  Visit our new home community in Madisonville, Louisiana today to learn more about our lots for sale and tour our new homes for sale.  Call 985-845-4200 or E-mail [email protected].

Click Here for the Source of the Information.

Louisiana, One of 5 States Leading the Housing Recovery

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What most average consumers don’t know is that real estate is directly related to the economy and the unemployment rate.  The National Association of Home Builders has a strong Congressional presence because of this fact and are constantly educating government officials on how important the housing recovery is to overall job growth.  The only thing that pulls a nation out of a Great Depression or a Great Recession is employment.  If people have jobs, they have money.  If they have money, they are contributing to the economy.  New construction plays a huge roll in this equation because for every new household created (college student moving out, creating a household, and buying a house or renting an apartment), over the course of one year, 3.5 jobs are created for a new home and 1.5 jobs are created for a new apartment.

“Currently, we are creating about 225,000 jobs per month, or 2.75 million per year. That is double the pace necessary to reduce unemployment and under employment, which augers very, very well for housing demand and the housing market more broadly,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Because college grads were unable to get career jobs starting out, during the last 5 years, multi-generational households were created where graduates were moving back in with their parents, or many people would move in together to save money.  During the 2014 Fall Construction Forecast Webinar, hosted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), economists predicted that all of that is about to change – that 2015 is set to be a break-out year for the construction and sales of new, single-family homes in the United States.

Economists are predicting that 2014 will end with a 2.5% increase in new home starts to rise to 637,000.  At the end of 2015, they are predicting that home starts will be at 802,000 and by the beginning of 2017, home starts will be at 1.1 million, just 300,000 starts away from what is considered a normal, healthy housing market at 1.4 million home starts.  So, by the end of 2015 the overall housing market will have recovered up to 68% of what is considered a good housing market.

“Single-family builders are feeling good. They are not overly confident, but confident enough to keep moving forward,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

These overall numbers cover averages across every metro area in the United States, but one economist zeroed in on the fact that some states and areas will perform better than others.  Louisiana was one of 5 energy producing states that are expected to lead the charge on the housing recovery, moving ahead more quickly in a reduction of unemployment and an increase in housing starts to possibly beat the timeline that was discussed during the webinar.  So far, locally St. Tammany Parish saw an increase in the 2nd quarter of 2014 which showed over 20% increases in improved unemployment rates and housing starts, so it seems that the Greater New Orleans area is already on track to see an improvement in the housing market sooner rather than later.

 

Click Here for the Source of the Information.