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Tag: homebuilder

  • Video: Homebuilder in Utah builds replica of the house from “Home Alone”

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    “Home Alone” is one of the most classic Christmas movies of all time, and it inspired a homebuilder in Utah to pay homage to the legendary film.A Utah builder decided to live his lifelong dream and build the ‘Home Alone’ home.”I mean, it could be viewed as certainly nerdy for somebody to go and invest seven million dollars into a home that’s based on a movie that they happen to love when they were kids, right?” Nathan Shaffer said.If the brickwork and windows don’t provoke a Christmastime déjà vu, the Oh-Kay Plumbing van with the Wet Bandit sticker will.A replica of the McCallister home Kevin was left alone in. “I remember watching it and a lot of us connected with that kid because it was like, dude, what would that be like to kind of be on our own,” Shaffer said.There aren’t many lookie-loos yet, but Shaffer’s crew will host community events where young and old can step into Kevin McCallister’s shoes.“We want them to just come and like be looking and using their creativity, right, to kind of use their imagination to find the things from the movie,” Shaffer said.Architect Josh Warner said the exterior is nearly identical.But since the interior was actually a soundstage, they modeled 60 to 70 percent off the real Chicago house — thanks to an online listing when it went up for sale.While there is no basement, there is an attic and a movie-style veranda with glass walls.

    “Home Alone” is one of the most classic Christmas movies of all time, and it inspired a homebuilder in Utah to pay homage to the legendary film.

    A Utah builder decided to live his lifelong dream and build the ‘Home Alone’ home.

    “I mean, it could be viewed as certainly nerdy for somebody to go and invest seven million dollars into a home that’s based on a movie that they happen to love when they were kids, right?” Nathan Shaffer said.

    If the brickwork and windows don’t provoke a Christmastime déjà vu, the Oh-Kay Plumbing van with the Wet Bandit sticker will.

    A replica of the McCallister home Kevin was left alone in.

    “I remember watching it and a lot of us connected with that kid because it was like, dude, what would that be like to kind of be on our own,” Shaffer said.

    There aren’t many lookie-loos yet, but Shaffer’s crew will host community events where young and old can step into Kevin McCallister’s shoes.

    “We want them to just come and like be looking and using their creativity, right, to kind of use their imagination to find the things from the movie,” Shaffer said.

    Architect Josh Warner said the exterior is nearly identical.

    But since the interior was actually a soundstage, they modeled 60 to 70 percent off the real Chicago house — thanks to an online listing when it went up for sale.

    While there is no basement, there is an attic and a movie-style veranda with glass walls.

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  • U.S. housing starts surge as builders rev up single-family home construction in May, while a housing shortage drags on 

    U.S. housing starts surge as builders rev up single-family home construction in May, while a housing shortage drags on 

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    The numbers: Construction on new American homes jumped 21.7% in May, as homebuilders ramp up building single-family homes to meet strong demand from buyers.

    Housing starts rose to a 1.63 million annual pace last month from 1.34 million in April, the government said Tuesday. That’s how many houses would be built over an entire year if construction took place at the same rate in every month as it did in May.

    Economists were expecting a slight decline of about 0.8%. The numbers are seasonally adjusted.

    This is the second month in a row that starts are up. The pace of construction was the highest since last April, when starts hit a 1.8 million pace.

    The surge in construction this spring was led by the Midwest.

    Both single and multi-family construction rose in May. Keen interest from would-be home buyers is creating strong demand for new homes. These buyers continue to face a lack of options in the resale market. 

    Building permits, a sign of future construction, rose 5.2% to a 1.49 million rate.

    Key details: As the weather warms up, construction pace has picked up considerably.

    The construction pace of single-family homes rose 18.5% in May while apartment building rose 28.1%.

    Home builders were most active in the Midwest, where housing starts rose by 67% from the previous month. The Midwest also led the nation in terms of single-family construction.

    Permits for single-family homes rose 5.2% in May while permits in buildings with at five units or more rose 7.8%.

    Housing starts are up on an annual basis for the first time in nearly a year. The annual rate of total housing starts rose 5.7% from last May.

    Big picture: New construction is a bright spot in an otherwise despondent housing market. For the buyers who brave 6% mortgage rates, there are few options in the resale market, which continues to funnel demand for new homes. 

    In fact, demand is so strong that homebuilders are pulling back on sales incentives, such as price cuts, the National Association of Home Builders reported on Monday. 

    Builders also reported that they were feeling upbeat about the housing market for the first time in nearly a year.

    What are they saying? “To say that we did not see this one coming would not even come close to capturing the degree to which the May residential construction data caught us off guard,” Richard Moody, senior vice president and chief economist at Regions Financial Corporation, wrote in a note.

    “This is without question an exaggeration of the underlying reality and a reminder that the housing starts data are among the most volatile and random of the government’s major economic indicators,” Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Santander U.S. Capital Markets, wrote in a note.

    “Having said that,” he added, “the housing sector broadly appears to be healing remarkably fast after enduring a historic shock in affordability last year, when 30-year mortgage rates more than doubled.”

    Market reaction: U.S. stocks
    DJIA,
    -0.59%

    SPX,
    -0.39%
    were down in early trading on Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
    TMUBMUSD10Y,
    3.721%
    rose above 3.7%.

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  • Builder sentiment fell every single month in 2022. Builders say there’s a silver lining.

    Builder sentiment fell every single month in 2022. Builders say there’s a silver lining.

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    The numbers:  The National Association of Home Builders’ monthly confidence index fell two points to 31 in December, the trade group said on Monday.

    It’s the 12th month in a row that the index has fallen.

    Outside of the pandemic, the December reading of 31 is the lowest level since mid-2012.

    A year ago, the NAHB index stood at 84. The index’s 12-month drop is a new record. 

    But it’s not the biggest drop, the NAHB said. The drop in builder confidence between the end of 2004 and the start of 2009 was sharper; the index fell from 71 to 8 in that span.

    Key details: The three gauges that underpin the overall confidence index were mixed:

    • The gauge that marks current sales conditions fell by 3 points. 

    • The component that assesses sales expectations for the next six months rose by 4 points.

    • And the gauge that measures traffic of prospective buyers was unchanged from last month.

    All four NAHB regions posted a drop in builder confidence, led by the South and the Northeast. 

    Big picture: While builders continue to struggle to find buyers with the current rate environment, they’re also seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

    Buyers are slowly coming back to the table as mortgage rates are no longer above 7%, and home price growth is moderating.

    And with 62% of builders offering incentives like mortgage rate buy-downs, paying points for buyers, and even price reductions, that luring some buyers, per the NAHB.

    About 35% of builders were dropping home prices in December, the NAHB said, with the average price reduction being 8%.

    What the NAHB said: “The silver lining in this HMI report is that it is the smallest drop in the index in the past six months, indicating that we are possibly nearing the bottom of the cycle for builder sentiment,” Robert Dietz, chief economist at the NAHB, said in a statement.

    “Mortgage rates are down from above 7% in recent weeks to about 6.3% today, and for the first time since April, builders registered an increase in future sales expectations,” he added.

    But the NAHB is expecting “weaker housing conditions” to persist in 2023, and only forecasts a full recovery in 2024, Dietz said. There is still a gap of 1.5 million housing units, they estimated nationwide.

    Nonetheless, the path to recovery is hard, the builders stressed.

    “In this high inflation, high mortgage rate environment, builders are struggling to keep housing affordable for home buyers,” Jerry Konter, chairman of the NAHB and a home builder and developer from Savannah, Ga., said in a statement.

    “With construction costs up more than 30% since inflation began to take off at the beginning of the year, there is little room for builders to cut prices,” Konter added.

    What are they saying? “We think home sales will find a floor by the end of the first quarter, helped by the near-75 [basis point] decline in mortgage rates since late October,” Kieran Clancy, senior U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a note.

    “But a meaningful recovery is still a long way off, and home prices have much further to fall,” he added.

    Market reaction: The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
    TMUBMUSD10Y,
    3.597%
    rose to 3.57% on Monday morning.

    While the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF
    XHB,
    -1.67%
    traded slightly lower during the morning session, as well as big home builder stocks like D.R. Horton Inc
    DHI,
    -1.44%    ,
    Toll Brothers
    TOL,
    -0.87%    ,
    and Lennar
    LEN,
    -2.28%    .

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