Beverly Tyson has
nine red pegs on her office tote board.
On Tyson's board, the red pegs indicate the lots that have not
been sold in Northbrook, a new Northside neighborhood off Dunn
Avenue. But her blue pegs outnumber the red ones. Her blue pegs
indicate the lots that have been sold.
Real estate agents all over the Jacksonville area, including
Tyson, are busy counting their sales.
That's because the sale of new houses and existing houses sold by
Realtors have increased by 17 percent and 15 percent, respectively,
during the first three months of the year, compared to the same time
period last year. Home buyers continue to buy houses because of
40-year-low interest rates on a mortgage. Also, they have more than
single-family houses to choose from. Builders are now building an
increasing stock of condominiums and town houses. Even though the
economy remains sluggish, area corporate relocations continue to
bring a steady flow of new home buyers into the housing market.
Also, owners of real estate-related companies, including mortgage
bankers, lumber companies and pest control operators, continue to be
recession-proof because of a good housing market.
The sale of existing houses in the Jacksonville area increased by
15 percent, from 2,808 to 3,224, during the first quarter of this
year compared to same time last year, according to figures recently
released by the Florida Association of Realtors in Orlando.
Realtors' sales do not represent houses that are sold by private
home owners.
The new home market is headed in the same direction.
In addition, area developers and builders were issued 17 percent
more permits to build new houses than last year. Last year, area
county building officials issued 2,298 permits during the first
quarter compared with 2,695 during the same time this year,
according to statistics released by the Northeast Florida Builders
Association.
"Overall, housing is still on track for a very solid year
overall, with total production expected to nearly equal last year's
number," said Denise Wallace, president of the builders group.
"The latest downshift in mortgage rates and strong house-price
appreciation are providing good support to the single-family
marketplace, and our latest builder surveys show a great deal of
optimism about future sales activity in that arena," Wallace said.
Andoor
Home builders continue to find andoor of opportunity to
build new houses on the city's Northside, which is an area where few
builders chose to build about five years ago.
 |
Todd Greene prepares
a new home for an outer coating of stucco in the Northbrook
subdivision in Jacksonville. More are buying houses because of
40-year-low interest rates on mortgages.
-- Jon M.
Fletcher/Staff
|
Tyson, who worked for Atlantic
Builders before joining Maronda Homes in August, said builders are
recognizing the Northside's beauty, lack of congestion, access to
Florida 9A and Interstate 295, and its closeness to downtown.
"People are realizing they can have deep-water access to the St.
Johns River," Tyson said.
Custom home builder Howard White, who primarily built houses on
the city's Southside, including Glen Kernan Golf & Country Club,
has now entered the Northside.
White, owner of the North Florida Builders Inc. in Jacksonville,
is beginning to build a 33-lot community, Newport Harbor, near Dunn
Avenue where the houses will range from about $240,000 to $400,000.
White said he had been considering entering the custom houses on
the Northside for the past two years.
"That is an untapped market and the land is still somewhat
affordable compared with other areas," White said.
The Northside houses are a part of White's strategy this year to
build about 60 houses that average about $450,000 instead of houses
that range from $400,000 to $1 million, which the company had been
building.
He said the only part of the housing market that appears to be
adversely impacted is the upper end, houses priced at $750,000-plus.
"However, we recently sold a house in Glen Kernan for $1.5
million. That is an indication that there are people out there
looking for that kind of house. Jacksonville's housing market has
matured to a level where million-dollar homes are becoming more
commonplace."
But that is not necessarily the norm.
Of the houses sold by Realtors, which excludes homes sold
privately by owners and non-affiliated real estate agents, the
area's median sales price for an existing houses was $126,300 during
the first quarter, compared with $115,500 during the same time last
year, a 9 percent increase.
The Jacksonville housing market will remain healthy as long as
interest rates remain low, said Ray Rodriguez, owner of the Real
Estate Strategy Center of North Florida Inc. in Jacksonville.
The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was
5.34 percent, according to yesterday's weekly survey of the nation's
lending institutions by Freddie Mac. On May 23, 2002, the average
interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 6.81 percent,
according to Freddie Mac.
Rodriguez said the resilience of the area's housing market will
be tested when interest rates start to increase.
While the housing market remains healthy, Rodriguez has
discovered a few nuances in the Jacksonville housing market, which
consists of 5,300 neighborhood developments.
For instance, Mandarin, south of Interstate 295, Keystone
Heights, south of Camp Blanding, and Marietta, north of I-10 and
I-295, had the lowest rates of home resales of any part of the
area's housing market.
A ripple effect
Owners of real estate-related businesses continue to feel the
ripple effects of a strong housing market. Granger Lumber-Hardware
Inc. in Jacksonville has experienced a 30 percent sales growth over
the past year, said Joshua Frye, a sales manager at Granger. The
company makes roof trusses at its Green Cove Springs plant and sells
them to home builders at its Westside sales office at 1180 S. Lane
Ave.
| |
V.A. Martin, front,
directs the flow of concrete as fellow workers Salvador Vega,
from left, Juan Vega and G.H. Leonardo form the slab of a
residential home in the Northbrook subdivision on
Jacksonville's Northside Wednesday.
-- Jon M.
Fletcher/Staff
|
Frye said their business activity
did not see a slowdown after Sept. 11, 2001.
"In fact, our CEO has a sign in his office that says, What
recession?"
Atlanta-based HomeBanc, a mortgage lender,d a branch office
in Jacksonville in October because of the growth in the Jacksonville
real estate market, said Dedie Campbell, a HomeBanc spokeswoman.
Campbell said the company is staging a marketing blitz called
"Operation Fullhouse," which is an effort to publicize jobngs
throughout the company, including in Jacksonville. The company
expects to hire 15 people this year at its office near Butler
Boulevard and Interstate 95. The Jacksonville branch now employs 30.
"Jacksonville has been an excellent place for us," said Ben
Stephens, HomeBanc's Jacksonville branch manager.
Housing sales is fostering the expansion of at least one pest
control company.
Brandon Pest Control has added two trucks to the company's fleet
to keep pace with the new home construction, said Stuart Herman,
Brandon's owner. The company has 25 trucks.
Herman said one truck allows the company to provide pre-treatment
to 1,000 new houses before they are completed. "It [the housing
market] ripples our whole business," Herman said.
"The last thing that we want is for the Jacksonville economy to
grow without us," he said.
Staff writer Earl Daniels can be reached at (904) 359-4689
or via e-mail at edanielsjacksonville.com.
