Looking for someone to blame about most of the regulatory fees, charges, delays, and expense layered on home building? Check out local homeowners’ role.
By John McManus | Builder
Something’s got to give. Something will.
Rising interest rates will inflict pain at the monthly-payment level that’s worked so persuasively as a lever of homeownership affordability. So, what happens next?
All things being equal, one of the three scenarios here below are likely, especially as labor costs kick upward on reflex, materials grip onto long-awaited pricing power, and lot prices continue to spiral north:
- Pace of sales, and the trajectory of recovery, will slow.
- Prices will flatten, and the rate of home values will slow.
- Profits will evaporate as builders try to hold prices and maintain pace at the expense of margins.
