Lots of New Home Construction in Little Silver and Oceanport

As I ride around the Little Silver-Oceanport area I can’t help but notice all of the new home construction that’s going on. I don’t think we’ve seen this much construction activity in five or six years, and it’s another good sign that the real estate market has turned around in our area.

Earlier this month I reported that 32 percent more Little Silver single-family homes had sold in the first six months of 2012 compared to last year (33 vs. 25), and that the inventory of Oceanport single-family homes was down to a 7.4 month supply (seven months or less is considered a “normal market”). It’s not just in Little Silver and Oceanport either. Year-to-date existing home sales in Rumson are up 25 percent compared to a year ago (50 compared to 42), and in Shreswbury the number of home sales has more than doubled (from 12 to 25).

Nationwide, the National Associate of Home Builders’ latest report shows that as of May we were seeing the highest level of residential construction spending since early 2009. This is good news for many reasons, including the number of construction workers who are being put back to work again and the increased purchasing of lumber, supplies, appliances, etc. needed to build a new house.

With four more months of good weather, a lot of the new homes should be finished by Thanksgiving, and a lot of families are going to be spending the winter enjoying their brand-new homes. All of them will be a lot more energy-efficient to heat and cool than the houses that were there before them, and hopefully a significant number of the new homes will be “green” homes that are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. If you’re thinking about building a new home and aren’t familiar with LEED, you might want to take a look at the U.S. Green Building Council’s web site http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19.

Len