The past year has been interesting for the housing industry... and by interesting I mean difficult. I continue to hear stories of contractors, builders, and suppliers who have had to close their doors for good. These are businesses who have been around a long time, and who would have liked to have been around for a lot longer. One of the saddest parts of these tales to me are when I hear about those who are really hard workers, those who are willing to work but just cannot find anything right now. I think we all feel that the economy will rebound and the housing business will get back to normal, but when?

Right now is a great time for home buyers. Prices are down... land is cheap and existing homes get less expensive the longer they are on the market. There are many stories about homes going for almost half their cost. Many homeowners would think, "with existing houses so inexpensive, why build?". For many homeowners, they are right, and the building industry will not recover completely until the large inventory of existing homes clears out of the market. However, there are many potential home buyers who know what they want in a home, or maybe they already have land purchased. For these individuals now is a great time to build a home. Material costs are down and labor is cheap. Builders are always anxious to please homeowners, but right now they are all looking for work and, I'm sure, are even more willing to do all they can to please their potential customer. So, if you are thinking about building a home I don't foresee there being a better time than now to get your project underway.