01 May 08 
Meritage Homes Reports First Quarter Loss
If you want to hear about the best deals in housing, you may want to subscribe to New Homes Section's Blog.
Stay Connected to New Homes for Sale and Builder Incentives!
Thanks for visiting!
Meritage Homes has posted a first-quarter loss, which is mainly attributed to a drop in sales of new homes in Arizona. During the quarter, Meritage has managed to reduce its new home inventory by 31 percent, which should lead to firmer prices and increased demand in 2009.
“Stabilizing prices should help improve buyer confidence over the next several quarters, and lead to improving demand in 2009 and beyond”, says Steve Hilton, chairman and chief executive of Meritage.
Meritage isn’t the only large homebuilder to successfully decrease their number of inventory homes, which is a good sign for the housing industry and the economy as a whole. However, the U.S. Commerce Department, reported last week, that new home sales in March dropped 8.5 percent to the lowest level since 1991.
Read this article in its entirety by clicking here.
Tags: Arizona Real Estate, Homes for Sale, meritage homes, new homes, steve hilton, us commerce department
25 Apr 08 Dallas-Fort Worth Home Prices Holding Strong
Good news for homeowners in the Dallas-Fort Worth area; home prices are predicted not to experience considerable price declines throughout the next couple of years. PMI Group, a mortgage insurance firm, has reported that thirteen of the nation’s top housing markets have a greater than 60 percent chance of experiencing a decline in home prices.
Various cities within Arizona, California, Nevada, and Florida have experienced the highest price increases in the past several years; however, most of these markets have seen significant declines over the past twelve months.
PMI’s David W. Berson—chief economist and strategist—stated, “excess supply is responsible for much of the risk we’re seeing in the market.”
This is a main reason for why North Texas is not expected to see home prices drop any time soon. There is a six-month supply of resale homes in North Texas and seven-month supply of new homes. The rest of the nation is looking at more than a nine-month supply of resale homes and just under a ten-month supply of new homes. The twenty-year industry average has been six-months for resales and five and a half months for new builds.
This information is reported by Steve Brown of The Dallas Morning News. To read the entire article click here.
Tags: dallas, dallas morning news, david benson, fort worth, home prices, Homes for Sale, pmi group, real esstate, steve brown
27 Mar 08 Phoenix Homebuilders May Pay More to Build New Homes
The Arizona Republic announced today that the city of Phoenix might increase the amount a Phoenix homebuilder is required to pay in water supply impact fees. The fees are used to pay for the necessary adjustments needed to meet an increase in water demand caused by residential growth. The article mentioned that the cost of water supply impact fees has not been raised since 1989 and that homebuilders may be required to pay as much as 100% more. The public meeting is set for May and voting will start as early as June. If the fees are increased, they will represent one more dilemma facing Arizona new homebuilders as they work to decrease inventory levels and earn a profit.
Here’s a link to the article from the Arizona Republic
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0327phx-waterfees0328.html
Tags: arizona home builders, Arizona Real Estate, arizona republic, home builder profits, Homes for Sale, new homes, water supply fees
