nity College.” Builders and remodelers have been very busy,” Manning said. “Remodeling actually is bigger than new housing, so the stats don’t take that into account.” That aspect was reinforced by Wayne Magee, president of Magee Construction. “We had an excellent year,” Magee said. “Obviously people wanted to spend money for upgrades.” For residential remodeling, Magee saw an approximate 50 percent increase in 2018 over 2017. “People seem to have a little more confidence in the direction the economy is going, he said. Kugler Construction has been building six to 10 custom homes per year for the past 10 years. Bill Kugler Jr., general manager at Kugler Construction noted that 2019 has all the indications of being a very strong year for custom home building. “There’s a very high volume of people interested in building right now,” he said. “The Cedar Valley has a good combination of an excellent workforce, good employers and is a good place to raise kids
and provide good opportunities for people. It’s all just a win-win combination.” Mike Taylor, with Lockard Realty, said that company also enjoyed a good 2018. “It was one of our better years and 2019 is starting out good,” Taylor said. “Housing is still pretty strong, and the market is doing well in Iowa in general.” As expected, due to increased development, downtown neighborhoods in Waterloo and Cedar Falls have become popular residential areas. That includes apartment and condo living. “The restaurants and nightlife has helped,” said Taylor. “People like to be in walking distance of home.” Fittro agreed. “You’re seeing a very big push on apartment buildings and multiplexes in the downtown areas,” he said. “It’s a great move by those developers along the Greenhill Road areas and downtown with developers like Brent Dahlstrom and Mark Kittrell. They’ve done a wonderful job of fulfilling market needs when it comes to rentals, leasing and condos.”
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