Tagged: new home construction

Michigan’s home builders are optimistic about the year ahead.

The recession walloped Michigan’s home building industry. Many builders went out of business. Others merged and focused on home remodeling.

But a new survey shows Michigan’s home builders are optimistic about getting back into the business of building new homes. They say pent up consumer demand, especially for more expensive homes ($200,000 to $800,000), is pushing up the Michigan Housing Index.

Michigan’s homebuilders are predicting a 39% increase in new home construction this year.

Michigan’s home building industry collapsed during the recession, down to roughly six thousand new homes built in 2009.

This year, they’re hoping to build at least 14 thousand homes.

Bob Filka is the CEO of the Michigan Home Builders Association.

“Its good news, but it’s also all relative,” says Filka,  “In the context of what used to be normal in construction in the state of Michigan, we’re really looking at about half of normal.”

There is a growing shortage of new homes in southeast Michigan.     That could be good news to the region’s home builders who have been struggling since before the recession began.

New home construction bottomed out in southeast Michigan in 2009 when few people were in the market for a home, new or not.

Last year, the number of home construction permits tripled, but still demand for new homes outstripped the supply.