Archive for Thursday, September 17, 2009
Lawrence building climate begins to show signs of turnaround
The housing market still has a pulse. Home buyers have accounted for the 73 single-family building permits issued in the past two months. Buyers are trying to take advantage of a federal tax credit.
September 17, 2009
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A series of new numbers have Lawrence builders and real estate agents harboring a little hope that the city’s housing and construction markets are inching upward.
A new report from City Hall shows that Lawrence builders have started work on 73 new homes in the last two months, the highest two-month total since early 2007.
“I would say the market has stabilized,” said Gary Nuzum, senior vice president with McGrew Real Estate. “I think we’ve seen the bottom.”
New development applications also are showing some signs of recovery. In the last week, the city has received applications for two multimillion-dollar apartment complexes.
Lawrence developer Michael Stultz has filed a site plan and rezoning request for a $6 million project that would add 164 single-bedroom apartments to the southeast corner of Clinton Parkway and Inverness Drive. He hopes to start construction as soon as the project wins city approval. Planning commissioners are scheduled to consider the project at their Monday meeting.
“Quite frankly, I have a lot of subcontractors who want to go to work,” Stultz said. “Prices are right in that manner. From that standpoint it is a good time to build.”
Activity on a previously approved golf course and apartment project also is taking place. A final development plan has been filed for The Links, a 480-unit apartment project that would be built around a proposed nine-hole golf course near Sixth Street and Queens Road.
City commissioners approved the zoning for the project — which would include 40 buildings spread over 80 acres — in February 2008, but the project never started construction. A representative of the Arkansas-based developer said his company recently finalized the purchase of the property and could begin construction next spring.
On the real estate front, Nuzum said activity still remains weak for houses priced above $250,000, but he said homes priced below that point have started to sell much better recently.
He said the federal government’s $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers has brought new buyers into the market as they’ve become more familiar with how the credit works.
“The $8,000 credit is just like cash,” Nuzum said. “It is not a deduction. If you got a $2,000 refund back from the government last year on your taxes, it would be $10,000 with this credit.”
New numbers from the Douglas County Appraiser’s office also suggest some improvement in the market this summer. Since July 1, the office has recorded 150 existing home sales, and the average selling price for the homes is up 5.3 percent from the 2008 average. The average selling price since July 1 has risen to $187,684.
Development leaders also are pointing to the single-family building permit totals. Currently Lawrence builders are on pace — barely — to build more homes in 2009 than they did in 2008. If that happens, it will end a stretch of three years of declines in the single family market.
“It is better than it was,” Nuzum said. “We’re hoping this fall will be a better market than last fall, which was a disaster.”
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17 September 2009
at 6:16 p.m.
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458casul (Anonymous) says…
wait didnt you just say this morning that permits were down 400.000 dollars and we had to cut everything in the budget wow what a turn
17 September 2009
at 8:46 p.m.
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Number_1_Grandma (Anonymous) says…
It's funny how in other towns where the housing market plummeted, prices for homes actually went down substantially. Not here in Lawrence. I wonder why that is….
17 September 2009
at 9:56 p.m.
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sunny (Anonymous) says…
Where are those jobs that Hussein promised?
18 September 2009
at 12:45 a.m.
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weatherguy48 (Anonymous) says…
Not in Lawrence
18 September 2009
at 9:36 a.m.
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Wallythewalrus (Anonymous) says…
More rental property? That shows growth? I always thought it was single family homes that show signs of true growth.
19 September 2009
at 2:46 a.m.
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merrill (Anonymous) says…
Lawrence,Kansas continues to focus on the the items that expand our tax bills. Residential demands more in expenses
that residential generates.
I am simply amazed that the flooded rental market continues
to expand. The empty structures cost taxpayers a ton of money because there is no one living in these structures.
Listening to city hall about how broke we are taxpayers should begin to understand why. Bedroom communities are high tax dollar operations because there is no employment for the residents. Empty bedrooms compound the problem because there is no living in these structures
with jobs in Lawrence to make money to spend in Lawrence.
If Lawrence could pay bills on property tax alone Lawrence would be rolling in the dough. Judging by the constant increase in cost of just about everything City Hall manages I'd say Lawrence,Kansas and the taxpayers are over extended.
19 September 2009
at 3:06 a.m.
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merrill (Anonymous) says…
Since the Reagan/Bush home loan scandal plus their great outsourcing plan aka Global Economy = millions of jobs abroad those jobs and pay scales never returned.
The original Wreckanomics sponsored by Reagan/Bush republicans aka RINO's.
Then the Bush/Cheney home loan scandal came along, which also devastated our economy and has cost the USA 8 million jobs.
Between the two administrations the USA is down about 20 million jobs. No significant NEW industries have developed that would replace those jobs and the pay scales.
The “shop till you drop” industry cannot sustain the USA.
Not only is it wasteful it requires good paying jobs that generate real money to make it work…… not high interest credit cards!
How can the recession be over? The USA still needs 20 million new jobs.
It seems to me that Lawrence has adopted the reckless Wreckanomics policy.
On the horizon will be the next wave of foreclosures. Only these will be the former working people who are among the 8 million who lost jobs during the Bush/Cheney Wreckanomics fiasco.
Why vote in any republicans for any office? These people practice reckless wreckanomics which is why I have labeled them RINO's. Certainly they are NOT fiscally responsible fiscal conservatives.
It seems to me that Lawrence has adopted the reckless Wreckanomics policy.