Archive for the ‘Interest Rates & Inflation’ Category

Fannie Mae Offers First-Time Home Buyers Big Help With Closing Costs

This 5 bedroom, 3-bath house qualifies for 3% closing cost from Fannie Mae

 

Kennesaw’s Ashford Capital Partners’ Managing Partners Matt Riedemann brings you news you can use.

If you’re a first-time home buyer just entering the market, you’re in for a springtime treat: Fannie Mae will now pay your closing costs, up to 3% of the price of the home—provided you take the mortgage giant’s home-buyer counseling course first.

The new HomePath Ready Buyer program, announced on Wednesday, allows first-time buyers (defined as those who have not owned a home in the past three years) to take an online course, get certified, and become eligible for what could amount to significant savings. For instance, on a $150,000 home, Fannie Mae could contribute up to $4,500 toward your closing costs—which typically range from 2.5% to 3% of a home’s price—and even reimburse you for the $75 online course.

“This could actually get someone in the game,” said Frank Montro, a Chicago-area real estate broker who specializes in selling rehabbed homes. “This goes straight to the buyer’s needs.”

Montro says first-time home buyers are usually either “cash-poor or credit-poor. They pay their bills on time and they qualify for the mortgage, but they just don’t have the savings.”

By offering closing cost assistance on their properties, Fannie Mae is opening the gates to a pool of people who have largely been left behind in the housing market recovery. Traditionally, first-time buyers have made up about 40% of the market. Last year, they accounted for 33%, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

While this announcement marks the mortgage giant’s latest step in loosening credit availability—it also announced a new 3% down loan program in December—it does so with some strings attached. The closing cost credit applies only to properties in Fannie Mae’s own inventory.

Fannie Mae owns thousands of houses across the country, all seized in foreclosure proceedings, and now the government-backed private corporation is actively trying to unload that inventory. Searching our own site’s listings, we found 7,075 single-family homes listed as Fannie Mae HomePath properties.

April 17th, 2015 – Chrystal Caruthers – http://www.realtor.com/news/fannie-mae-first-time-home-buyer-closing-costs-help/

Kennesaw’s Ashford Capital Partners’ Managing Partners Matt Riedemann brings you news you can use.  Check back tomorrow for more.

Producer Prices in February – Falling Prices, Except for Gypsum

Softwood lumber prices declined 1.6% in February. The Random Lengths Framing Lumber Composite Index points to further declines in March. Analysts point to softer than expected US single family construction in 2014, inventory management on the part of distributors, and softening overseas markets as factors. Additional declines will be tempered going forward by possible log shortages and continuing transportation bottlenecks.

Prices for OSB declined 2.9% after modest upticks in the prior three months. The return of mothballed capacity since 2013 has supply outpacing demand. Random Lengths indicates additional declines in March. The PPI for OSB indicates a 46% decline from the price peak in March 2013.

Prices for gypsum jumped 3.9% in February after a 4.3% increase in January reaching an all-time high. Gypsum prices are now 5.4% higher than their 2006 housing boom peak while single family housing starts remain depressed at roughly half the normal level of production.

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Come back tomorrow to http://www.AshfordCP.com/blog  where Kennesaw’s Ashford Capital Partners’ Managing Partners Matt Riedemann brings you news you can use.

 

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Mortgage Rates Continue Month-Long Slide

Mortgage Rates Continue Month-Long Slide

Kennesaw’s Ashford Capital Partners’ Managing Partner Matthew Riedemann brings you news you can use.

Mortgage rate declines have continued now for more than a month straight, bringing interest rates down once again to new 2014 lows.

In its weekly released Primary Mortgage Market SurveyFreddie Mac found the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) was 4.12 percent (0.6 point) for the week ending May 29, down from 4.14 percent last week and the lowest 30-year fixed average since October 2013.

The 15-year FRM also slid down, averaging 3.21 percent (0.5 point) compared to last week’s 3.25 percent.

The latest rate movements accompanied mixed news in the housing market, noted Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist: “Fixed mortgage rates eased a bit for the fifth consecutive week as reports thatexisting home sales are up 1.3 percent but not as much as expected. However, new home sales rose 6.4 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 433,000, which followed an upward revision of 11,000 units for the prior two months.”

Movements were mixed for adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs). According to Freddie Mac, the 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid ARM averaged 2.96 percent (0.3 point), unchanged from the last survey. Meanwhile, the 1-year ARM averaged 2.41 percent (0.4 point), down from 2.43 percent.

Bankrate.com’s weekly national survey also showed declines for fixed rates, though adjustable rates were up. According to the finance site’s latest data, the 30-year fixed last week averaged 4.25 percent, while the 15-year fixed was down to 3.35 percent. The 5/1 ARM, on the other hand, edged up a few basis points to 3.24 percent.

With the Federal Reserve tapering its stimulus purchases, analysts for Bankrate say it’s outside pressures pushing rates down: “A number of factors come into play: disappointing U.S. economic growth at the start of 2014; slower growth in emerging markets; the prospect of European stimulus measures; and geopolitical issues around the globe, to name a few. But the bottom line is this—any time investors get nervous, whatever the reason, it is good news for mortgage shoppers.”

Come back tomorrow to www.AshfordCP.com/blog  where Kennesaw’s Ashford Capital Partners’ Managing Partners Matthew Riedemann brings you news you can use.

Author: Tory Barringer May 30, 2014 0

Firms of the Builder 100 Primed for Growth

The firms of the Builder 100 and Next 100 rise above the challenges of 2013

 

 

 

NAHB chief economist David Crowe notes in his “Small Vs. Large” analysis that the average NAHB single-family builder “has 10 employees, builds 27 single-family homes in a year, and has an average annual volume of $4 million.”

And—just as society has its 2 percent—so, too, does home building. Welcome to one of our crown-jewel annual projects, the Builder 100 and Next 100, compliments of the teams at organizations who produce, market, and settle on more than half of the nation’s new homes every year—a number that is growing, and, we expect, will keep growing.

The list itself and what it quantifies belie the work, the cleverness and creativity, the skills, the boldness, and the sheer force of will and resilience among the teams of people behind the titles of the 200 companies in our survey universe. We’ve profiled a few of the fastest growers on the next seven pages and provided related market data from Metrostudy, Hanley Wood’s research arm.

Last year’s primary driving mechanism was investors’ need for yield opportunity, which poured liquidity into absorbing distressed inventory in huge gulps, giving home builders two long-awaited and critical bases to work off. One was stabilized and upwardly mobile house pricing, a strong signal to discretionary buyers that the moment had come to move off the sidelines and into the pursuit of that dream home. The second was a sense of urgency, which had been absent since about the time Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in the Gulf in 2005. In 2013, bidding wars over properties actually broke out like hockey skirmishes that pitted potential owner-occupiers against one another and against investor buyers, and the scarcity of inventory took care of the rest.

People wanted what there wasn’t a lot of, and that played into the hands of the big, and not so much the little, home builder. Why? Money. Big builders’ one material advantage over the broader market in the past year was capital muscle. If you had lots and a reserve of cash to invest to build on them, you did well. If, as in “normal” housing cycles, you needed to access financing to acquire lots and structure project loans, you didn’t do well.

This year’s Builder 100 and Next 100 builders, roughly the equivalent of American society’s 2 percent, accounted for more than one out of every two new homes sold (53.1 percent) in 2013. The “200” consolidated gains coming out of the downturn into the early stretches of recovery. While the broader new residential construction community accounted for a year-on-year jump of about 13 percent, to a total of 430,000 new-homes sold, our community of home building’s 200 biggest players rocked a 24 percent increase on an absolute jump of 43,968 homes.

For 2013, the minimum barrier to entry into the vaunted top 100 ranking was 406 homes. That’s a 27 percent hurdle to have cleared versus the minimum number of 2012 units, and eight companies made that leap with aplomb: Eastwood Homes, American West Development, AV Homes, TRI Pointe Homes, The New Home Co., The Providence Group of Georgia, Dunhill Homes, and Robson Communities. We salute them and welcome them to the show.

And don’t say there weren’t challenges in 2013. Let’s name a few. How about credit, both for builders and buyers who need financing to go through with their purchase? Arguably, the pendulum of risk-aversion had swung to an unheard of extreme, which made extracting acquisition, development, and construction lending and a 30-year fixed-rate loan for someone with a normal credit rating a have-fun-trying experience. What about labor? What about entitled, approved, and developed lots? What about the Fed taper, introduced with such finesse by former chairman Ben Bernanke mid-year? And how about that little interruption in all government activities that occurred during the first two weeks of October?

That’s not to mention chronic issues like flat-lining household incomes, lumpy geographical recoveries, and a growing mismatch between job openings and individuals with the required skills.

If builders could do what they did despite the challenges, shocks, and impediments of 2013, they’re apt to be able to do themselves one better this year. They’re looking beyond the external forces at their internal mechanics, people, process, and programs. They’re improving as they go, which is what home building’s 2 percent is all about right now.

 

By  with Builder www.builderonline.com on May 9, 2014

Twice as Many Consumers Prefer New Homes to Existing

Larger closets, open floor plans, and roomy kitchen islands seen as big draws of new homes.

 

While twice as many American consumers prefer a newly built home compared to an existing dwelling, many are reluctant to pay extra for new, according to the results of a new survey from Trulia.

Forty-one percent of respondents said they prefer to buy a new home over a previously lived in one, compared to 21 percent who said they would prefer an existing home at the same price. But of those buyers interested in new homes, only 46% were willing to pay the 20% premium that new homes typically require. In fact, only 17% of respondents said they would pay at least 20% more for a new home.

Trulia compared median prices for a new home adjusted for property features and location and found that new homes are typically priced 20% higher than older homes with similar attributes such as square footage and number of bedrooms in the same zip code.

The survey explored consumer preferences for each type of home. The top reasons respondents prefer a new home are for modern features such as bigger closets, a kitchen island, open floor plan, walls pre-wired for flat screen TVs, radiant floor heating, to be able to customize the home before construction is completed, and to spend less on maintenance and repairs.

Fans of existing homes have their reasons, too. The most compelling reason to buy an existing home is to pay less. However, among respondents who strongly prefer an existing home, the top reasons to buy an existing home are for one-of-a-kind finishes such as original wood floors, woodwork, ornate details, or stained/leaded glass windows, and to live in a more established neighborhood.

Interestingly, respondents are much more likely to mention the neighborhood as a reason to prefer an existing home than as a reason to prefer a new home. This suggests that for many Americans, the ideal home might be a new home in an established neighborhood, the survey concludes.

By  – Builder Online – May 5, 2014

The New Math of Renting vs. Buying

Here’s how to figure out which strategy makes the most financial sense.

Buying a home has long been part of the American dream. But rising prices have made renting less expensive in many places.

How They Rank 

See the full rankings for 54 metro areas, and how Deutsche Bank did the math, on Total Return.

People often aspire to own a home for reasons that have little to do with money, and rental options are limited in some communities. Yet owning property can limit your flexibility to move when you want and ties up a lot of your money.

The median sales price of existing single-family homes rose 11.4% in 2013 from the previous year—the highest yearly increase since 2005, according to the National Association of Realtors. Prices in many places, including Los Angeles, Baltimore and Portland, Ore., rose even more last year.

The monthly cost of renting was lower than buying in 20 large metropolitan areas at the end of last year, the most recent period for which data are available, according to figures provided exclusively to The Wall Street Journal by Deutsche Bank.   

The bank calculates the costs in 54 markets based on average local rents and median home-sale prices, which it uses to estimate monthly mortgage payments for a hypothetical buyer in the 25% federal income-tax bracket.

Renting had been less expensive than buying on average across all the areas Deutsche Bank tracks since at least the early 1990s. But that changed during the financial crisis, as home prices plummeted and interest rates on mortgages dropped. The current rally in home prices appears to be pushing the housing market back toward the historical norm.

Where Renters Made Gains

Here are the metro areas where renting made the biggest gains against buying in the fourth quarter of last year compared with a year earlier.

        

A renter in Orlando paid $1.24 a month for every $1 a buyer spent last year, down from $1.44 in 2012.                

 

The five markets where renting recently became cheaper than buying include some popular cities and suburbs where home prices are climbing fastest: Sacramento, Calif.; Phoenix; San Bernardino and Riverside, Calif.; Austin, Texas; and Northern Virginia.

Buying is still cheaper in 34 metropolitan areas Deutsche Bank examined, including Cleveland, Chicago and Atlanta, though prices rose last year in those areas, as well.

Renting has become more appealing financially than it was at the end of 2012 in places such as St. Louis; Orlando, Fla.; and Minneapolis, though buyers still pay much less than renters in those areas.

The buying advantage was slight in some places. Miami, San Antonio and Las Vegas are among the hot markets where renters appeared to be on the verge of being better off than buyers at year-end, according to the bank’s figures.

Buyers, of course, can build up equity as they pay down a mortgage, which can compensate for higher monthly costs.

Here is what you need to know to help figure out the most cost-effective way to keep a roof over your head. The first step is to understand the arguments in favor of buying and renting.

The Case for Buying

Many Americans see buying a home as an essential step in a successful life, and owning one can bring significant financial benefits.

The most obvious upside is that a home can significantly increase in value. The median sales price of existing single-family homes rose 81% from 1993 through 2013, according to the NAR.

The potential payoff can loom large in a buyer’s mind when home prices are going up rapidly, as they have recently. “We’ve already seen six to seven years of normal appreciation in the last 12 months” in many markets, says Jack McCabe, an independent housing analyst in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

Many homeowners also can deduct mortgage interest from their income-tax bills along the way.

In addition, homeowners can tap into the equity in their homes for big-ticket expenses, such as college tuition, at interest rates that can be lower than other financing options—though that can backfire by saddling homeowners with debt they can’t easily repay.

Homeowners also don’t have to worry about a spike in rents. Jacquelyn Bilton, who is 34 years old, bought a three-bedroom home with a pool in Margate, Fla., in February for $200,000, after her landlord raised her rent 28% last year. She says her monthly housing costs are now about $300 lower.

“I couldn’t afford to be throwing money down the drain in rent when I could purchase a home,” she says.

As they age, homeowners can enjoy another benefit. If they pay off their mortgages around the time they retire, their housing costs can drop significantly just when they may want extra cash for travel, medical expenses and the like, says Chris Mayer, research director at the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia University.

To be sure, the dream also can turn into a financial nightmare. The collapse of the housing market starting in 2008, which triggered millions of foreclosures, is a vivid recent example of what can go wrong.

Still, owning a home can be well worth it for personal and psychological reasons that go beyond financial calculations.

The Case for Renting

Given the wide array of potential benefits, homeowners are sometimes surprised to learn that buying isn’t always the smartest financial option.

To begin with, the monthly cost of renting can be lower, even for a home of similar size and quality in the same community.

 

Homeowners are sometimes surprised to learn that buying isn’t always the smartest financial option.             

Renters, for example, don’t pay property taxes, homeowner’s insurance and, in most cases, maintenance costs. These expenses can cost homeowners about 3% of the price of their home annually, experts say.

While those costs can be folded into monthly rent, apartment renters often pay a smaller share as landlords spread the costs among many tenants, says Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, director of the Center for Real Estate Finance Research at New York University. If a window breaks or the toilet plugs up, your landlord—not you—pays for the repairs.

Renters don’t end up with a valuable asset, as buyers do when they pay off a mortgage. But renters might be able to make more money by investing the monthly savings, as well as the cash they would otherwise use for a down payment, he says.

The value of the average single-family home increased by 3.6% a year in the three decades through 2013, compounded annually, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. By contrast, the compound annual return on the S&P 500 over that period was 11.1%, according to Chicago-based investment-research firm Morningstar.

After moving to New York two years ago, Hunter Kearney, 27, looked into buying a condominium worth at least $2 million. But Mr. Kearney, an executive at a firm that sells graphite, concluded that renting a similar apartment was significantly less expensive.

“Your monthly costs end up being lower,” says Mr. Kearney, who says he saves about $2,000 a month over the cost of buying. He is investing some of the savings in the stock market.

Renters often have greater flexibility to move to a different part of the country, which can be important in a weak job market. They may feel freer to look for work in another city, and they don’t have to wait to sell their home if the right opportunity opens up.

Housing prices don’t need to decline as severely as they did during the financial crisis to cost homeowners significant sums, if they need to sell during a downturn. Modest declines in home prices are common.

Even people who want to own a home at some point can benefit from renting for a while to save up for a larger down payment. If the available inventory is thin, they can rent while they wait for a wider variety of homes to be listed for sale.

Handling a Hot Market

To calculate whether buying or renting makes more sense financially, you need to have a sense of your monthly costs in each case, including rent, mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and other related expenses that may apply to each option—as well as whether you would be more likely to spend or invest any savings from renting.

The verdict could differ considerably within a city, suburb or town, based on the location and the style and size of the homes you are exploring.

The Deutsche Bank data reflect an attempt to do that math across metropolitan areas, and essentially function as a general guide to each market.

Would-be buyers should proceed carefully. First, they should try to get a sense of how hot the local real-estate market is and whether buyers generally still have the upper hand, which is often the case far from the coasts and outside large cities.

If you are in a more-competitive market, be alert to the risk that you could end up in a bidding war that could drive up the purchase price. Being patient could pay off if prices cool down. In fact, slight corrections already have occurred in some markets.

In San Francisco’s East Bay area, for example, asking prices of some new homes declined 1% to 5% during the second half of last year, after builders raised prices by 5% to 18% in the prior quarter, according to Metrostudy, a housing research and consulting firm based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Gene and Erin Lash plan to sell their home in Danville, Calif., and are prepared to spend $1 million to $2 million on a larger house. But the couple has faced as many as 30 competing offers on each of the five homes they bid on and lost out every time, says Mr. Lash, a 48-year-old forensic accountant.

Now, the Lashes are also looking into renting a single-family home or an apartment as a short-term alternative to buying. “Everything is on the table,” Mr. Lash says.

Even in a hot market, the math can be more advantageous for buyers who plan to stay put for a while, typically at least five to seven years. That should be enough time for market corrections to pass, says Landon Nash, a real-estate agent in San Francisco with national brokerage Redfin.

Mr. Nash says he is telling would-be buyers in his area who plan to sell in fewer than five years that they run significant risk of selling at a loss. “We’re at the top of the market,” he says. “They might be better off as renters.”

By:       AnnaMaria Andriotis – Builder Online –    May 2, 2014 6:17 p.m. ET

 

Home Building Is Back

The latest Builder 100 data shows the country’s biggest builders have more than rebounded from the recession.

 

BUILDER’s premier list of the top 100 builders in the country, the BUILDER 100, is set to be released next week. In light of that, we are counting down each day with some facts and figures gleaned from the data. 

Based on the results of the Builder 100 survey data, it appears the country’s largest builders have not only weathered the recession, they are stronger and more profitable than ever. In 2013, the top 100 builders in the country had a combined gross revenue of $64 billion, a 25 percent increase from 2012’s $51 billion.

The growth is a welcome sign from the stagnant years of 2010 to 2011, which held fast at $42 billion and $41 billion, respectively.

 

By  w/ Builder Online Magazine

New Home Sales Will March to New Highs Soon

Let me go out on a limb and report now that new home sales are indeed marching forward and should be looking more positive on both a month-over-month, and year-over-year basis.

Metrostudy collects data on traffic and sales from builders around the country. The data isn’t as reliable as the full census we do in the field, inspecting subdivisions lot-by-lot, or by the lagging data on home closings, but in aggregate the traffic and sales metrics give us visibility into key leading trends.

The most reliable way to compare traffic and sales month-to-month and year-over-year is to look at the average traffic and average sales number per community, as that helps to control for changes caused by more or fewer communities. Think of it as “same store sales.” So if the average traffic and sales numbers go up, builders are seeing better results across their communities.

We are seeing 2014 perform following a classic new home sales pattern. In such a pattern, sales should grow each month into the spring and summer, and decline in the second half of the year (reflecting the extreme seasonality of real estate and construction).  Every month this year has reflected improving momentum—just as a classic seasonal pattern would predict.  But when compared to last year (which looked more like the industry was shot out of a cannon in January), sales haven’t been as strong.  The most negative bears said it was more than the weather.  I say it was weather and a very abnormal start to last year.

It’s time for the bears to wake up and realize spring has sprung, because we hit a new milestone at the end of March, even though the month was still harsh for winter weather.  In looking at our weekly traffic numbers, the most significant story was seen in the final week of March.  The last week of March recorded the best traffic and sales over at least the past four years for the same period.  That was also the first week in 2014 that both the traffic and contract average surpassed the same data points in 2013.

 

By  – Builder Online 4/22/2014

When Will the Kids Leave?

Why are household formations so low?  Because 1.2 million more adults live with their parents than just 8 years ago!

Nearly 4% of US households had an oldest child aged 25–34 living at home in 2012. Compare this to 2006, when approximately 3% of households fit this category.

2014-04-21_15-25-42

While the jump from 3% to 4% may seem small, the net result of this shift is 1.2 million additional households with an adult child in this age group. And it isn’t just confined to those under 35. The share of US households with an oldest child aged 35 or older living at home is approximately 3% and has been rising as well.

This major demographic shift is creating a lot of pent-up demand that someday will be unleashed. Most of these young adults will rent first, except for those who have taken this time living with mom and dad to save up for a down payment. As we showed previously, today’s young adults have achieved homeownership at a lower rate than their parents at the same age, and we believe that they will continue to do so for some time.

 

Author:  by Chris Porter w/ John Burns Real Estate Consulting

Scarce Lots Make Builder Haves and Have-Nots

A lone carpenter carries plywood flooring at a building site of Mid-Atlantic Builders' 'The Villages of Savannah' in Brandywine, Maryland May 31, 2013. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

A resurgent U.S. housing market has created an unforeseen land shortage that could take the shine off an otherwise promising year for homebuilders.

To keep up with demand, builders who neglected to buy land during the downturn must now pay top dollar for prized city-center locations. Their profit margins are likely to be squeezed this year, even as house prices rise.

“Builders waited so long to buy land that, when the recovery happened, it was very strong and they got caught short,” said Tobias Welo, a portfolio manager at Fidelity Investments.

The quickest solution for the big players, according to some analysts and fund managers, will be to snap up small, privately owned builders facing the opposite problem: plenty of land but limited access to bank finance.

The Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction index .DJUSHB has regained much of the ground lost in the second half of 2013, when rising mortgage rates and wider economic uncertainty broke an 18-month winning streak for homebuilder stocks.

With anecdotal evidence from homebuilders and mortgage brokers suggesting a pick-up in demand for residential housing, analysts are forecasting an average 18 percent jump in the value of the leading U.S. homebuilders this year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The average forecast covers D.R. Horton Inc (DHI.N), PulteGroup Inc (PHM.N), Lennar Corp (LEN.N), KB Home (KBH.N) and Toll Brothers Inc (TOL.N).

David Crowe, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders, expects new home construction in the United States to rise by about 25 percent this year, up from 18 percent last year.

But his forecast is conditional on homebuilders buying enough land in sought-after urban areas. If they don’t, he said, the rate of increase could be half his original estimate.

James Krapfel, analyst at Morningstar Inc, forecast new home construction growth at 16 percent this year – a slower rate than last year – due in part to the shortage of developed land.

Not everyone is affected equally. Lennar, the third-largest U.S. homebuilder, and Toll Brothers, the biggest luxury builder, bulked up their land banks with a string of low-cost land acquisitions during the 2008-2010 economic downturn.

Toll Brothers has accumulated a bigger land bank than most – enough to last more than 12 years, compared with an average 7.4 years for the top five U.S. homebuilders, according to data published by Tri Pointe Homes Inc (TPH.N) in November.

Less acquisitive during the downturn, D.R. Horton, the largest U.S. homebuilder, and PulteGroup, its nearest peer, are more likely to feel the shortage, analysts said.

PulteGroup has land supply to last about seven years, the data from Tri Pointe showed.

D.R. Horton and PulteGroup did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

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GRAPHIC: U.S. land financing r.reuters.com/juq97v

GRAPHIC: Construction spending r.reuters.com/xef94t

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SCOUTING FOR LAND

To date, homebuilders have turned the land shortage to their advantage. It has even helped them to raise prices as Americans adjust to higher mortgage rates in a stabilizing economy.

For D.R. Horton, the three-month period ended December 31 was its most profitable first quarter since 2006. Its average sales price rose 10 percent to $275,600, with a “very strong” spring selling season yet to come.

In the same quarter, PulteGroup’s revenue growth was driven by a 13 percent increase in its average sales price, even as the company slowed the pace of new-home building.

But time is running out for ambitious homebuilders short of land, who must typically spend between two and five years readying raw land for development. Land near city centers, known in the industry as ‘A’ lots, is especially hard to come by.

“The run-up in land prices has been huge. What someone paid for land last year may not even work today,” said Scott Laurie, chief executive of privately owned Californian builder Olson Homes, which plans to spend at least 25 percent more on land purchases in 2014 than last year.

Acquiring smaller, private companies with a foothold in urban locations could be the quickest way for big homebuilders to grow their land banks – and the feeling could be mutual.

Private companies have found it more difficult to secure financing since the crisis: U.S. land development financing totaled around $210 billion in the fourth quarter last year, only a third of the level in early 2008, data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp showed. (r.reuters.com/gun97v)

Ryland Group Inc (RYL.N) has said it wants to buy homebuilders that would add to its land bank, having already acquired Lionsgate Homes in Dallas, which gave it access to 885 developed lots and homes. (r.reuters.com/wyx28v)

Tri Pointe and Toll Brothers also announced deals late last year that gave them access to developed lots in California.

“The attractiveness of a private builder to a public builder is its land position,” said Hollis Greenlaw, chief executive of United Development Funding, which manages funds holding more than $1 billion for investment in homes.

“They don’t need any more homebuilding talent. What they want is those land positions.”

Article: By Sagarika Jaisinghani

(Editing by Mathew Veedon and Robin Paxton)