Why are New Home Sales Up at The Riverfront and Founders Pointe?

We’re off to a great start for new homes sales to the new year in 2012! East West Realty reports six new home sales in January at The Riverfront community in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. SALES ARE UP! Our quality new homes are appealing to relocating buyers looking for more than just a house- they want a quality home in a neighborhood that offers more resort style amenities and a sense of community. They're pickier about the quality features in a new home and about the community they select. (To see my reasons why homebuyers should consider a new home today, check out my 5 Reasons Why It's a Good Time to Buy New.)

Here are some of the recent sales successes in The Riverfront at Harbour View...

Sasser Construction just ratified a $699,000 pre-sold custom home on their Lot 59 Village Square Place on Tuesday, giving us six new home sales for January, and 24 new home sales transactions since last May.

Sasser Construction also has a $1.235 million dollar presale on Lot 24 River Park Drive (overlooking the 14^th green) and they also sold their Homearama model home last month on Shelter Cove Court for $549,900. The Stephen Alexander Homearama model also sold in early January, That's the 8th Homearama home SOLD! (8 of the 9 Homearama models are now sold which is excellent for a late fall home show)

There’s several other interested homebuyers close to their purchase decision as well- many people are willing to meet with the builder to explore their options involved with a custom, design build opportunity to work together to achieve the “Home of Their Dreams”. After all, isn't it worth a few months of inconvenience to get everything you always wanted?

Priscilla LeMoine, with East West Realty, has a new lot reservation on Lot 23 River Park Drive (another golf course lot). Emerson Builders is designing a custom plan for a couple (the home is coming in the $1.2-$1.3 million range) and they are fine tuning the house plans… Tina Manrique has an out of town couple building with Sasser Construction on Lot 20 River park Drive- a golf course presale in the $900k range, and Adria Joseph helped a couple custom/design build a new home (over $2 million on the Nansemond River) with Sadler Building Corporation on Lot 118 River Park Drive.

More evidence of a resurgence in new home interest- the eight home sales in Homearama, the three pre-sold homes on Summerhouse Drive (Lot 17 with Ore Builders, Lot 15 with Sasser on the lake, and Lot 20), the four Village Square Place pre-sold custom homes that closed recently, (by Birdsong Builders on Lot 58 around $600k, by ABT Custom Homes on Lot 60 around $700k, by Sasser Construction on Lot 64 ($550k) and Lot 67 around $600k),  the recent closings of the Sutcliffe model ($750k range) by Norman Miller on North River Rd and the ABT Custom Homes Longleaf model on Village Square (in the $700’s)…wow, that's alot of activity!

Why are we seeing a RESURGENCE in NEW HOME ACTIVITY?

Since last May, we’ve seen an increase in consumer attitudes and of homebuyers wanting to build a new home…just look at all of our construction activity around the neighborhood. It's INCREDIBLE- the amount of enthusiasm we're seeing again for new homes in our market. It kind of started when we sold Sasser Construction's Southern Living Showcase home for $1,150,000 last Spring. Then several other models for sale went under contract and the next thing you know, we're rolling into the Homearama model home show this past October with alot of momentum.

There’s a lot of pent up demand out there and the families who’ve chosen to move in the last few months, they're very impressed with the VALUE and QUALITY the Builders are offering, and we're experiencing more custom home pre-sales than in recent years. They're discovering that it's worth the extra few months wait to get the RIGHT HOME and RIGHT NEIGHBORHOOD (which is an overall GREAT VALUE) over their other options out there. The more that potential homebuyers investigate their new home options, the more comfortable they'll become with moving forward. Contrary to what some naysayers are reporting, the builders are including MORE quality features that people WANT in the homes than they were a few years ago.

NOW IS THE TIME to buy (historically low interest rates, great lot values, competitive pricing to build new vs resale home options)…many in the media are now saying that the cost to build is at the most affordable level in a very long time. We’re already hearing that increases in building materials and labor are starting to go up in cost…just ask any of the builders out there and they’ll tell you their pricing will not be this low again.

Jasmine Feliu, one of our agents that works together with Jeni Millikin at Gables at The Riverfront (homes pictured above) reports, "Buyers are excited about new homes again! We've had 10 recent sales and we're seeing alot of people shopping for a new home with a purpose..they're on a mission to buy now and take advantage of the opportunity." (Gables is a new lakefront neighborhood in The Riverfront where the homes range from $260,000 to $400,000).

Interesting note about our sales in Founders Pointe: we've also seen a resurgence at our waterfront community in Isle of Wight County. Donita Frantz with East West Realty just helped a couple, relocating from out of town, purchase Birdsong Builder's Featured Model (the Kensington Creek, a $629k home) in Founders Pointe. We’re also closing on the Norman Miller home on Ships Landing at $642k tomorrow, (a couple from Philadelphia asked Norman to custom build the home for them after looking all over York County), and we’ve just closed Ed Sadler’s Model on Carter’s Creek Lane in the $520k range. Recent pre-sold homes on Lot 128 Patriot's Ridge for $638k (by Newhall Construction), Lot 136 in the $580's & Lot 162 for $617k (with Sasser Construction), and on Lot 158 (by Birdsong Builders) is further evidence of a very active new home market.. We’ve seen over 30 sale transactions there over the last 18 months, (from June 2010 to this January).” 

To summarize, We’re off to a great start to 2012 and there’s a lot of positive signs nationally that 2012 will be a much improved year for new home sales. There’s a low supply, a pent up demand, low interest rates, and people are itching to do something- they’ve been waiting for the right time…look out, because we expect they’ll be coming out of the woodwork this spring…NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO BUY!”