The housing market in california is going in the toilet. Im curious as to how it is affecting you guys outside of Ca. From what I understand there have been record foreclosures here over the last month. No doubt due to everyone that got on the "buy a house for interest only bandwagon."

I see a tough time ahead for guys like me in the construction business. I do a great deal of production tract homes. Over the last month, Ive seen some of my jobsites literally come to a stop, in good weather

Really sucks, after this last winter, one of the worst Ive had to work through. Just when the rain clears up and things are supposed to get better, it seems like things are going to take a turn for the worst.

Tom

 

Move to Utah and you will be fine. Homes are going up like crazy, I just built my first house in 300k to 800k neighborhood which is about 1.5 million in Cali, I have been in it for 3 months and could sell it today and make 75k. I use to build homes for a builder here in Utah, he now builds houses in Cali and makes a mil on every home he does out there, he gets all of his materials here and sends his crew out there to build it. I did one house in Atherton.

 

hey Tom I just moved here and my main expertise is roofing and exterior construction, but I am starting to work with my Dad in the Modular classroom industry and both were pretty slow but now that the weathers getting better it is starting back up for the summer. I am used to winters slowing down, because of weather being from Wisconsin if weather sucks for some reason people don't want to do many projects

 

Yea, I hear ya. But I dont think the weather is the problem. I drive through some of my jobsites and see 10 or 15 pads waiting for sticks which arent coming. Its the rising interest rates, and people going hog wild over the last few years buying homes that they cant afford. Now they are loosing those homes, and the ones that can afford a new homes are buying up foreclosures, which in turn is putting a hurt on new homes and production builders and their subs.

Tom

 

From those of us standing on the outside looking in, a correction in California's highly overinflated real estate/housing market has been long overdue.

Rusty

 

Interesting....I'm in the commercial HVAC biz here in San Diego and find myself wondering about the economy in general. Construction has been the backbone of our economy for a while now and it is definately slowing down. Luckily, I do a lot of repair work so I will most likely be OK. I am curious to see what the rest of the country is seeing in regards to construction slowdowns and home prices in general.

 

I have to agree that the new housing market will slow down but remodeling should pick up. I also agree that it will change from a sellers market to a buyers market which especially in this crazy CA market will maybe bring the median cost to a reasonable point. But in Madison Wisconsin it has slowed down some too but from who I have talked with its starting to pick back up but the median price there is about $240k a little more than half the median here in the valley. By the way what are you doing in new construction? If you're bored give me a call I'm kind of off today before I have a full week in elk grove and San mateo with some modular classrooms.
Josh

 

There has been a lot of talk in various publications recently about the housing 'bubble' bursting over the entire US. Apparantly various so-called experts (economists) think that the housing market is going to soon crash. The prediction is that it will lead to a recesssion as early as late 2006. The only disagreemnt appears to be in the timing and fallout of the falloff. Even Alan Greenspan seems to think that the market is on the brink of unravelling. The UCLA report forecasts a 10.7 percent decline in residential construction in 2006, helping to push real gross domestic product from 3.4 percent in 2005 to 2.4 percent in 2006.
It's not nice to read stuff like this and I for one sure hope these 'experts' are very wrong.

 

It may crash in some areas but more likely it will level off.

 

Our listings are up about double over last year, but homes are selling - - slowly. Builders are offering some healthy discounts on inventory homes and not building specs in some categories - - discounts in the neighborhood of $100K on a $600K house. Guess that indicates what the builder is making on the house, hey. Anything over 2 million is still selling good, but with some discounts. One just across the bay from me just sold with a discount - - asking 12 mil, sold for 9 mil. Anything under $300K (if you can find something) is selling good. The market between 300K and 2 mil is slow and is a buyers market. Construction is definitely slowing in the residential, but picking back up in commercial. Still lots of roofing needed from last year's hurricanes - - lots of blue roofs just south of me.

 

New housing is going up everywhere around here, it doesnt seem like theres enough people living around here to fill them all, but they keep building and selling them...
Both the BOSS's brothers are contractor/painters, and they're busier than a one-legged man at an --kicking contest..they're "choosing" what they do and dont want to do right now....I know they havent always been like that, and that it wont last, but for about the last 18 months, they've been in hog-heaven...

 

Yep! You gotta love California! Spend $350,000+ on a house that is 3 bedroom, 2 bath, maybe a garage, less than an acre of land and you can reach out your window and touch your neighbors house. WELL SPENT MONEY!
My wife found a brand new house on 90 acres of land for $189,000 and it wasn't California. (Tennessee)

 

I dont think there is much room for leveling out in Ca. As for other parts of the country, your probably right

Tom

 

Josh, Im tied up today with bunch of admin stuff, Mondays

As far as what I do? I own a low voltage wiring company. We install all low voltage wiring in new and existing homes (mostly new). Phone, Data, Cable, Security systems, Audio Distribution, Home Theater, Central Vacuum etc. Its been a booming business for the last 10 years, but things are looking pretty weak right now.

Tom

 

I'm getting ready to put my house up on the market pretty soon. Dinwiddie, VA (rural 45 min commute to Richmond). 3600 sq ft finish. 1 1/2 car garage. Two barns, one pond and 10.61 acres. Horse pasture too! Agent said it should go easy at $300,000. The problem will be building a house for under that I'm 28 and plan on doing this moving thing ONE more time.