ORLANDO, Fla. --- Across Florida, many of the same production home builders who rode the pricing explosion 'to infinity...and beyond' back in 2005 are positioning their homes for a new generation of post-bubble buyers who favor 'affordable' over old-school buzz words like 'luxury,' 'gated' and 'resort style.'Yesterday Lennar's Tampa Bay division issued a news release to formally challenge area home builders to focus on 'value'---and invite potential buyers to be the judge. They sound serious. Says Mark Metheny, left, president of Lennar North Tampa:
"Florida's housing industry is facing its biggest challenge ever. We've focused on location, we've focused on size, we've focused on features and we've focused on design. If we're going to turn the housing market around, we need to focus on good old fashioned value," said Metheny.
Lennar ranks as one of the nation's three largest home builders and the biggest builder in the Tampa Bay region, with 26 communities and prices that start from the $130's. The median sale price in Tampa last year was $252,500.
Centex Homes, which likewise ranks as one of Florida's most active builders, announced on Wednesday it wants to be Florida's leading builder of affordably priced homes. From Carol Ann Barody, director of operational marketing for Centex Homes in the Orlando region:
"Centex has retooled its entire production, from site acquisition to model home design to features and amenities in order to price its home more affordably without reducing quality," Barody said.
Centex boasts it now has 10 communities in the Orlando region that offer new single family homes priced from the $140s to the $190s. And they aren't ugly either---the Durango, right, at Sullivan Ranch in Mount Dora, offers 1,708 square feet in a three-bedroom, two-bath 'twin villa' (duplex) design that's priced at $146,900---half the Orlando region's $294,000 median sale price in 2006.
The most distinguishing trend at the annual Marion County Fall Showcase of Homes in Ocala is the downward price shift. Marion County's median sale price in 2006 was $195,950. The fall Parade---which continues through this weekend---features 41 homes by 23 builders. And prices?
...many range downward to $130,000.
Francine Schaefer, executive officer of by the Marion County Building Industry Association (MCBIA), told Rick Allen at the Ocala Star-Banner last week that more than half of the homes entered in the fall Parade are priced below $300,000.
Contrast that with MCBIA's spring Parade, when nearly a third of the 60 homes were priced $500,000-plus, including one for $3.6 million, and only 25 homes were priced below $300,000, the lowest at $158,145.
At the Building Industry Association of Okaloosa and Walton Counties (BIAOW)'s summer Parade last July, the lowest-priced home came in at $144,000.
It's not just home builders who are climbing on the 'affordable' wagon.
Realtor Hemley Gonzales in Miami has launched affordableproperties.com, a nationwide real estate sales web site that only features homes priced under $500,000. While Gonales' franchise is a bit more sizzle than steak, his lip service, at least, is on the right track---the 2006 median sale price in Dade and Broward counties was $345,000 and $339,000, respectively.
"Realtors who work primarily with affordable properties and owners of such real estate are in dire need of an effective and affordable marketing solution. Not every individual representing or selling these types of properties can spend $500 - $2,500 dollars every month to promote a single listing on a local scale, let alone a national platform. That's why we aim to be worth every penny of our service!" explains the company's CEO and founder, Hemley Gonzalez."It is time for a $175,000 single family home in Texas, a $57,000 condo in Dayton Ohio and a $287,000 townhouse in Oregon to receive the same attention as a $7 million waterfront estate in Florida" adds Gonzalez.
To be sure, not everyone has gotten the 'affordable' message. Yet.
Margie Krpan, deputy director of the Builders Association of North Central Florida in Gainesville, is busy coordinating the final weekend of BANCF's annual Fall Parade of Homes, but she doesn't know anything about prices.
"We don't keep track of the prices of Parade homes," Krpan told us. That's one way to deal with sticker shock---denial. But, Krpan quickly explained, the 625-member BANCF has never listed prices for its Parade homes.
"I've been associated with the Builders Association for 21 years and we have never listed prices, to my knowledge," she said.
The Citrus County Builders Association's Fall Parade of Homes, which continues through Oct. 28, is likewise 'priceless.'
In DeLand, pro home builders Bob Fitzsimmons, Mike DeAngelo and Geri Davis---former executives at Masterpiece Homes for more than 12 years until Orleans Homebuilders bought out Masterpiece, canned them and dropped the Masterpiece name earlier this year---have found the best and highest value for their home-building talents:
Gallery Homes will concentrate its efforts in West Volusia initially, [Fitzsimmons] said, but still hopes to build 50 homes by the end of 2008. Within five years, he anticipates building about 150 homes a year.
They've also found an honored place in our Florida Affordable Housing Builders & Developers gallery. Joe Crews at the Daytona Beach News-Journal has their story:
Gallery Homes offers three basic floor plans, each available in two architectural styles, ranging in price from $104,900 to $131,900, not including the lot. The company will build on one of the scattered lots it owns in the DeLand area -- five are currently in inventory, and more are being sought -- or on a prospective buyer's lot.Also, Gallery Homes finalized a contract this week to build its first subdivision, which will have 55 lots. Highlands will be built southwest of North Ridgewood and West Minnesota avenues.
Land clearing and construction of the infrastructure already has begun, Fitzsimmons said.
"We'll have homes starting in the $150,000s, with three bedrooms, two baths and two-car garages," he said. "It will probably be January before homes start going in."
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