Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 10/07/2007 - 05:00.
Washington state builders hit hard by housing slowdown
Snohomish County's housing boom is over. Builders are laying off workers, houses are staying on the market longer from 47 days to 67 days over last year, and the overall number of permit applications has dropped by hundreds compared to last year.
What a difference from the largest building boom the county has ever seen, marked by bidding wars and rabid pre-sales of homes. During that boom, a 5,000-square-foot vacant lot went for as high as $247,000.
Snohomish County plans to cut at least 20 vacant positions from its building department. At the same time, the county expects to collect $12 million less in permit revenues and real estate taxes next year.
Area experts say the market is going back to a normal, sustainable, healthy housing market, with average appreciation of 3 percent a year for the next three or four years. Then the cycle will start over again. In five years, we may reach 10 percent a year."
Some builders are stuck with some of the leftover inventory because the number of buyers isn't as high as it had been, Gorton said. Consequently, builders are "taking a deep breath," Gorton said.
Fewer vacant building lots are being bought, plummeting from 889 in the first three months of the year to 145 sales in July, August and September, said Toby Barnett of Barnett Associates Real Estate in Marysville.
After seeing where the market was heading and what projects they had on their plate, Lake Stevens-based builder Barclays North Inc. decided to lay off 20 percent of its work force this summer, company vice-president David Toyer said.
"The market's not falling off the end of the planet," Britsch said. "We still have only a 4½-month supply of homes under construction. That's a fantastic number. When the housing market was absolutely booming, we had 2½ months on the market. In a bad market, you have an eight- to 12-month supply. Sales have not slowed to that point."
"Three hundred thousand people will move to Snohomish County in the next 20 years," said Gorton of the Realtors group. "For the time being, yeah, I think the initial building boom has cooled a bit, but I will not be surprised to see it pick up again."
Source: http://heraldnet.com/article/20071007/NEWS01/710070060/-1/news01
What a difference from the largest building boom the county has ever seen, marked by bidding wars and rabid pre-sales of homes. During that boom, a 5,000-square-foot vacant lot went for as high as $247,000.
Snohomish County plans to cut at least 20 vacant positions from its building department. At the same time, the county expects to collect $12 million less in permit revenues and real estate taxes next year.
Area experts say the market is going back to a normal, sustainable, healthy housing market, with average appreciation of 3 percent a year for the next three or four years. Then the cycle will start over again. In five years, we may reach 10 percent a year."
Some builders are stuck with some of the leftover inventory because the number of buyers isn't as high as it had been, Gorton said. Consequently, builders are "taking a deep breath," Gorton said.
Fewer vacant building lots are being bought, plummeting from 889 in the first three months of the year to 145 sales in July, August and September, said Toby Barnett of Barnett Associates Real Estate in Marysville.
After seeing where the market was heading and what projects they had on their plate, Lake Stevens-based builder Barclays North Inc. decided to lay off 20 percent of its work force this summer, company vice-president David Toyer said.
"The market's not falling off the end of the planet," Britsch said. "We still have only a 4½-month supply of homes under construction. That's a fantastic number. When the housing market was absolutely booming, we had 2½ months on the market. In a bad market, you have an eight- to 12-month supply. Sales have not slowed to that point."
"Three hundred thousand people will move to Snohomish County in the next 20 years," said Gorton of the Realtors group. "For the time being, yeah, I think the initial building boom has cooled a bit, but I will not be surprised to see it pick up again."
Source: http://heraldnet.com/article/20071007/NEWS01/710070060/-1/news01
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