The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) reported on June 19th that single family housing starts rose again in May. This is giving Austin custom home builders confidence that the real estate industry is on its way back. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and HUD show that May had a 3.6 percent rise in single family housing starts and brings this year’s total to 516,000 units. This is the largest rise the housing industry has seen all year. Reports also show that construction permit requests grew in May by 4.0 percent, which is the highest month over month increase since March 2010.
The upswing in new home starts and permit requests shows that consumers believe it is quickly becoming less of a risk to invest in the real estate market again. This causes home builders to become more and more confident that the housing market is in the beginning stages of a comeback. Due to the recession, the cost of labor and materials are low, but as the demand for labor and materials to build custom homes in Austin goes up, the supply for both will go down, driving up the cost of custom homes in Austin. As home builders and vendors anticipate the comeback, the cost of labor and materials will begin to increase in the near future.
So what does all this mean? Well, for one, the real estate industry is usually the first to be impacted in the national economy. If we see an upswing in our industry, the rest of nation’s industries will not far behind. More importantly, if you have been waiting to begin or continue the planning process for your custom home, now is the time to move forward with your project.