Charleston new home construction trends
While building at a slower pace, the new home builders in the Charleston area are also offering new home buyers homes that are somewhat different from just a few years ago during the housing boom.
A few words will describe what you can expect to find at new home communities today: smaller, better floor plans, more quality finishes, greener and more energy efficient.
And more affordable.
In my neighborhood, I've noticed the builder offering many new plans including yikes!, homes that are even nicer than mine. And I've seen the same trend in several other new home communities that I've visited lately.
There are still some spec homes being built but at a much more manageable pace so you won't see the price cutting deals of a few years ago when builders were stuck with a lot of unsold activity when the market started to slow. There are a few builders who aren't building anything without a contract.
And the trend toward smaller. CNN Money has an interesting article The Incredible Shrinking Home and offers some thoughts on the future of McMansions.
New homes are now 7% smaller -- or the size of one average-sized room. To be precise, the median square footage of newly built homes fell to 2,065 square feet in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
This caps off 2008, when home size fell every quarter, marking first year of declines since 1994. That could indicate that the romance between Americans and morbidly obese McMansions has finally cooled.
Now, how does a seller compete with new construction when attempting to sell their current home. It's certainly different from several years ago when buyers who might have been interested in buying a new home were on waiting lists of almost a year and if they had to move and get settled, many were forced to buy newer built preowned homes.
Back then, home sellers would see what a similar new home might cost and list their home for about the same price. And it sold because demand was so strong.
Today, with builders offering more for less, it's much more challenging for a home seller to compete. The best advice as always, make sure your home in pristine condition and price it right. Understand that you are competing with model homes that are professionally decorated and the builder is motivated to sell.
For more information on buying new construction homes throughout the Charleston area, visit the new construction page on my website.