They say the new homebuilders are doing something new. They are building. That has not happened much in the last 7 years.
New Homebuilder Lennar reopened a community in Surprise last month that it had stopped building in during the crash.
New homebuilderFulton Homes reports its metro Phoenix home sales are almost 50 percent ahead of last year’s pace.
Eastmark in Mesa ranked No. 1 in the U.S. for the biggest increase in home sales — 181 percent — in 2015, according to national real estate firm RCLCO.
Metro Phoenix’s new homebuilder market is definitely rebounding from its seven-year slump. And builders started 2016 strong.
New-home permits in January were up 57 percent from the same month in 2015, according to RL Brown Housing Reports.
Lower prices could be drawing more buyers. The median price of new home fell to about $294,800 in January from $298,100 in December.
Housing analysts RL Brown and Greg Burger say Valley builders are offering more lower-priced homes to better compete with the resale market.
The median price of an existing home is about $225,000 now.
In Pinal County, metro Phoenix’s farthest southeastern suburb, new-home prices start as low as $140,000. And that’s probably why new-home construction there shot up 114 percent last month.
Ironwood Crossing in Pinal’s San Tan Valley is currently one of Fulton’s top-selling communities. Prices for the builder’s homes there start at around $170,000.
The increase in new-home building and sales is expected to continue for the new few years.
Brown and Burger are forecasting about 18,000 new homes will be built Valleywide this year. That will be about a 13 percent increase from last year’s home
Many new-home buyers still want the most home for their buck in metro Phoenix.