KY3: New Home Energy Audit Tax Credits

Contact KY3's Cara Restelli reports on the new Missouri tax credit for home energy audits and implementation of their recommendations. City Utilities home energy auditor John Smith demonstrates a home energy audit. CU Director of Energy Conservation Cara Schaefer and HBA of Greater Springfield Executive Officer Matt Morrow also provide comment on the program. You can watch the video directly from the SpringfieldHBA.com website below, or by clicking here.

SBJ: St. Louis company analyzes local housing market

In this week's issue of the Springfield Business Journal, Jeremy Elwood recaps the HBA's work with Zanola Company and Market Graphics, Inc. to provide unprecedented housing and construction data and forecasting. Following is the full article: St. Louis company analyzes local housing market

St. Louis company analyzes local housing market

Zanola Co. is partnering with Springfield HBA for an in-depth look at new home construction in the Ozarks

Jeremy Elwood

Reporter

Springfield Business Journal

Monday, December 08, 2008

The Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield is hoping to get a better handle on the state of the Springfield-area real estate market, and the organization is getting some help from a national expert on market research. 

St. Louis-based Zanola Co. LLC presented the first batch of its market research about the five-county area - Greene, Christian, Taney, Stone and Barry counties - to a group of HBA members and financial community representatives Oct. 30. 

The meeting of HBA and Zanola was serendipitous for both sides, according to HBA Public Affairs Director Jennifer McClure. She said that members of Zanola's staff saw a Springfield Business Journal article by HBA Executive Officer Matt Morrow, in which he talked about HBA's desire to gather more in-depth information about the housing market. 

"Zanola contacted Matt and told him that not only were they working on a similar project for five counties in the region, they were also drilling much further into the housing landscape," McClure said.

The presentation

Zanola presented an overview of the housing market based on information from public records and field investigation, using tools from Tennessee-based MarketGraphics Research Group Inc., which specializes in gathering data for the residential real estate sector.

Information covers every aspect of the home building market: supply compared to expected demand, price distribution of new homes and specific geographic areas that may be over- or underdeveloped. 

Zanola will present market updates to HBA every four months. In return, Zanola Co. has the opportunity to sell the in-depth version of its market analysis to HBA members and the community. 

While company president Joe Zanola said the Springfield home market faces many of the same problems as others across the country, he said this area is in better shape than most. 

"You have population growth and increasing income, among other factors," Zanola told the group of more than 30. "It's hard to say I've got good news for you based on what we're going through, but ... you're in a pretty good position compared to the rest of the world."

Zanola did note that overall, the area is slightly overbuilt. He also said that the area's price curve - which charts the distribution of homes by projected sale price - is healthy, with about 60 percent of homes priced under $225,000.

Presentation attendee Rusty MacLachlan of J. Russell MacLachlan Custom Homes was not surprised by Zanola's findings.

"We all know the area is a little bit overbuilt at the moment," he said. "But that inventory is getting bought up fairly quickly, and it looks like our area is going to bounce back more quickly than on the national level."

Zanola also noted that Greene County's share of new home construction is dropping - only 36 percent of 2008 new home construction in the five-county area is projected to be in Greene County, down from about 61 percent in 2002. 

The reaction

MacLachlan, who in January begins a term as Springfield HBA president, said having access to Zanola's information is invaluable to the home-building community.

Without that information, "all (builders) can do is ask around and stick a finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, hoping you do the best you can with limited resources," he said. "What this does is very clearly spell out some very detailed information about where our market is and where it's headed. As an individual builder, I couldn't justify the expense of hiring that work to be done."

Where the market is headed, according to Zanola, is through a continued correction. He echoed the sentiments of many in the Springfield building community: Southwest Missouri has not experienced the same peaks as other areas, meaning the subsequent valleys will not be as deep.

"It's a challenging market out there, but you have a lot of positive things you're dealing with here that put you in a better position than many parts of the country," Zanola said, citing population growth and job creation potential in the Ozarks. 

HBA Executive Officer Matt Morrow acknowledged the downturn in the home-building market, but he told the group that the slowdown is precisely the reason the partnership with Zanola Co. makes sense for HBA.

"This is one of those times when the market has slowed and there's less going on, and it's an opportunity for all of us to work together and set the table properly," Morrow said. "So when we come out of this, we'll come out much stronger."

 

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KSFX-27: Economy Makes It Hard For Immigrants to Find Jobs

The slow home building economy has affected many people who work in the business, including immigrant workers. HBA member Rosales Masonry and HBA President-Elect Rusty MacLachlan are interviewed as part of this news story by Carlos Correa for KSFX-27, which aired Saturday, December 6, 2008. You can watch the video direcly from Springfieldhba.com below, or jump to it by clicking here.

Springfield News Leader: Bargains to be had locally for first-time home buyers

In the Sunday Springfield News Leader (November 2, 2008), Ryan Colvard reported on unique buying opportunities in local residential real estate, even in today's challenging market. Among those interviewed for the article was HBA of Greater Springfield Executive Officer Matt Morrow. Following is the full story:

Bargains to be had locally for first-time home buyers
Local Realtors confident economy will bounce back quicker here than elsewhere.

RYAN COLVARD • FOR THE NEWS-LEADER • NOVEMBER 2, 2008

Springfield's housing market has remained largely unaffected by market turbulence and could be heading for an upturn once the national market stabilizes, area Realtors say.

According to the National Association of Realtors, the weakest housing markets are along the coasts, in such states as California, Florida and the Washington, D.C., area. Springfield has fared better.

"We're not on the coast -- we're not Florida, we're not California -- where most of these speculative buys were," said Art Maxwell, sales manager of Coldwell-Banker Vanguard. "... A lot of these speculative buys were secondary houses, not the buyer's primary home. They were investment properties. And like most other investments, when it goes bad you dump it."

There's a lot of doom and gloom, he said, but there shouldn't be.

Local Realtors have confidence in the strength of Springfield's economy; however, it seems that potential buyers and sellers are still uncertain about the stability of the housing market. This uncertainty will most likely continue through the end of the year.

"Perception is reality, and if it's put out there enough, then people start thinking that it's not time to buy a home because it's a bad investment, which in Springfield is the wrong-headed decision," said Maxwell.

First-time home buyers in particular are in a position to benefit from low selling prices and competitive rates. First-time home buyers are defined as those who have not purchased a home within the past three years.

"If you're a first-time home buyer, there's never been a better time. When the first-time home buyers have low rates like they do now, and they can get into homes because the housing prices are so low, you're not going to see a stagnant market for very long."

First-time home buyers entering the market creates what Maxwell described as a "train effect" -- pulling along the next group of potential buyers and allowing them to move up into better housing.

Besides first-time buyers, cash buyers and those who are moving to a higher-end home also stand to benefit. Still, public doubt concerning the market has deterred many home buyers from taking advantage of the situation.

"There's a psychology right now that is preventing people from moving because they don't want to lose on their house," said Matt Morrow of the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield. "But in reality most people are moving up, and if you're moving up then the numbers work in your favor."

The current market situation in Springfield has caused the construction of new homes to slow, as builders and residential developers wait for existing homes to sell. An influx of first-time home buyers is needed to spur demand.

The decision for builders to temporarily curb residential construction projects is the right thing to do, according to Morrow, who said that it benefits Springfield's economy in the long run by not saturating the market with homes that aren't being sold.

"Builders and developers here are stopping. This is good --it's exactly what they should do," Morrow said. "What has to happen before new construction can really get rolling -- in any kind of successful way again -- is that some of the inventory of existing homes needs to start moving."
"Once that secondary housing market starts to get going again, that's when you'll see everything really start to pop."

Springfield began to experience the housing slump later than other areas of the country, according to Morrow, and professionals in the business believe that Springfield and the surrounding areas will recover earlier as well.

"We have a lot factors that work in our favor here," said Morrow. "One of the things about our local economy, which goes much further than homebuilding, is that we do tend to be diversified and less subject to the real highs and lows."

Judy Huntsman, a real estate broker for Coldwell-Banker, said the cyclical nature of the market points toward future gains.

"The market's going to build up again. There's probably going to be a brief shortage of houses since the builders have shut down. We're really thinking the first quarter of next year is going to be big," said Huntsman.

Professionals within the local housing market who understand how markets have a tendency to fluctuate are concerned that media coverage of the national economic slump will artificially depress local markets.

"People are hearing all of the national media saying it's just desolate -- that you can't sell a house, you can't give it away -- and that's just not true," said Murney Associates Realtor Rhonda Burks.

"It's balancing out, which is the way a market should be, but it's not the doom and gloom we're hearing nationally. There are different areas of the country that are really struggling. We're not struggling."