By Diana Olick | CNBC
Home construction weakened in March, and homebuilder sentiment hasn’t budged in three months — all this in the heart of the historically strong spring housing market. The common complaint from builders is that they are hamstrung by a lack of skilled labor, which is keeping production levels low.
That may have been a factor for the past several years, but today it is less and less a plausible excuse.
“In Arizona, home sales have continued to grow. From mid-March to mid-April, Metro Phoenix homebuilders sold 5% more homes than they had sold during the same period one year ago. The Tucson-area and Northern Arizona markets are growing much more rapidly now, fueled by exceptional job growth, growing in-migration, and second homebuyers.”
~ Jim Belfiore, real estate consultant
