According to a monthly survey of home builders conducted by Zelman Associates, a housing research firm, the spring new home selling season is off to a strong start. By many accounts, buyers of newly built homes came out in force last month.
Respondents in Zelman’s January survey reported that total orders for new homes increased by 32% in January from a year earlier, an improvement from the 27% year-over-year pace in December.
Zelman described January’s seasonally adjusted order pace as “the highest level of the recovery.” In addition, 45% of Zelman’s respondents reported better than expected customer-traffic counts in January, the highest percentage since Zelman began posing that question monthly in January 2014.
“It’s a pretty good time to be a home buyer,” said Alan Ratner, a senior analyst for Zelman. He attributes the January increase to the improving economy, stronger job growth, low mortgage rates and a slight loosening of mortgage-qualification guidelines.
