March 30, 2017
The custom home market here in Kansas City is steadily rising with new construction from local companies. The healthy competition of custom home builders in Kansas City has been steadily growing since home inventory for sale has started to diminish. According to the Local Home Builders Association, whose membership were once in the 600’s, is down to around 200, with around 50 to 75 builders that are actively busy. Most builders are identifying themselves as custom home specialists. The lower first-time buyers aren’t really in this area. This looks as if there are less companies in the field, but steady building from each builder. What’s interesting to note is that the top 10 builders in Kansas City aren’t capturing a huge percentage of market closings. The larger local companies are coming back stronger after the recession.
The effects of growing population, healthy transportation and distribution, along with the low cost of doing business is why Kansas City’s home construction market is growing. Custom home builders are optimistic about the future of Kansas City. According to a report by the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City, there has been an increase of 17 percent in single-family permits in 2016 compared to 2015. For consecutive years, the amount of single-family permit activity has risen, and currently is at its highest level since ten years ago.
The report shows that the 1,953 single-family and multi-family permits in the first six months of the year were the most since 2008. They believe that customer confidence continues to grow, with an increasing demand for new construction of custom homes. The question is if the growth will last. Pending contracts were up this year. The fact that we ‘feel’ the market growing is still backed by real data. Lot prices have been slowly rising because there haven’t been much lot development in recent years. For the first time in years there are phase additions for most builders.