When laying down the foundation of a building, it is all about the timing, says Burleigh County Building Official Mitch Flanagan.
Flanagan says people wanted to see how the pandemic would play out.
The housing market across the nation has stalled out after the boom earlier this year.
Lumber prices have trended down recently, but that has not yet reflected on the retail price.
However, according to real estate experts in BismarckMandan, it is still an extreme seller’s market.
Lumber kits used to build houses spiked earlier this year due to a lumber shortage.
Jamie McLean from Integra Realty Group says that there is a low inventory in available houses, giving sellers more incentive to put their houses up for sale.
Jeff White from White House Realty says this trend may continue for the near future.
“In the beginning of the year, we saw quite a drop off in “It’s a pretty short build season from April until October. permit requests. It was quiet from January until March,” said When the ground starts thawing out, they start digging,” said Flanagan. Flanagan. But with the cost of lumber going back down and COVID It first starts by obtaining a permit to build. 286 building cases remaining low so far, business is continuing to pick permits have been issued so far this year. Last year there back up. were 177 building permits issued. Building permits can be issued within one to three days. Flanagan says one of the reasons for the increase in Flanagan’s office says processing time takes between 24building permits is historically low interest rates. Common 48 hours. areas for construction are near Highway 83. The average permit fee in Burleigh County is about From April until now, he says there’s been a 29% increase $1,750 for a single-family home under 500,000. in permits issued.
He said buyers have put in offers for as many as 40 houses and offer to buy a house for $100,000 or more over market value, only to walk away empty-handed.
McLean said one metric that brokers use to determine whether it is a buyer’s or seller’s market is the absorption rate, or how many months worth of inventory they have. “Right now we are hovering at about two months of inventory, a healthy market is at six,” said McLean.
“Lumber was down 45 percent in a single month, but you haven’t seen that really translate to the retail end of it, because those contracts are still in place for the lumber they have,” said White.
According to McLean, right now there are only 183 singlefamily homes available. Buyers are encouraged to be ready to buy when looking at a house they may be interested in.
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