Looking at grantors transferring more than two parcel during July 2017, grantors that we generally associate with new construction accounted for 131 transfers. This beats the per-month average in 2017 Q2. We note that many of the transfers were multi-lot, meaning that these same lots may reflect again in future single-family home sales. That is, they appear to be transfers of build-ready lot sales which leads to new construction. See the attached data.
An interesting post (http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2017/08/a-few-comments-on-july-existing-home.html) commenting on the NAR’s July numbers on Existing Home Sales pointed out the “distress gap” between new home sales and new construction created by the burst of the housing bubble. Blogger Bill McBride expects, on a national level, that increases in new home sales will close the gap in time, as existing home sales grow more slowly, comparatively.
In our local market, we continue to see very thin existing home inventory in the non-luxury space. But the new home construction we’ve experienced, it’s possible that our “distress gap” is closer to closed than the national market. Regardless, because new home sales have been starting at prices above the traditional first-home price targets, we continue to see very low Days-on-Market for existing homes listed towards the lower end of the price-spectrum.