'It's On Fire'
Meritage Homes raised Phoenix-area prices this year by as much as $1,500, said Larry Seay, chief financial officer for the Scottsdale, Arizona-based builder. In January, developer DMB Associates Inc. selected the name Eastmark for a 3,200-acre (1,300-hectare) project that's the first new large master- planned community in the Phoenix area since 2005, said James "Nate" Nathan, president of Nathan & Associates Inc., a land broker in Scottsdale, Arizona.
"It's on fire here," Nathan said in a telephone interview. "We're adding jobs, the lot inventory is dwindling and population growth has resumed."
Even in Florida -- which has the highest percentage of homes in the foreclosure pipeline, according to Lender Processing Services Inc. -- demand for new houses has revived in pockets, said Jody Kahn, vice president of John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc. Prospective buyers began lining up Jan. 27, the night before closely held G.L. Homes Ltd. opened a new community in Naples where homes start at $379,000, she said.
"Florida builders began raising prices in December," Kahn said in a telephone interview from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "It's kind of mind-blowing because so many people consider Florida ground zero for foreclosures."
Inventory Falls
In Denver, prices hadn't rebounded even as the inventory of existing homes listed for sale fell to 8,800 in January, down 37 percent from a year earlier, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors. That may change as agents have started to receive multiple offers on mid-range properties in recent weeks, said Scott Matthias, the group's president.
"I haven't seen multiple offers in four or five years," said Matthias, a Realtor with Re/Max Professionals in Denver.
Those offers also may spark more interest in new home starts, which fell to 3,600 last year in the Denver area, down 82 percent from the 2006 peak, said John Covert, director for the Colorado region for Metrostudy, a Houston-based company that tracks home construction.
"We expect the market to grow by 15 percent this year," Covert said. "That sounds like a big number for housing starts, but it's still only going to get us another 500."