Bulletin Board Magazine 2021 Volume 2

Market Update

From a BUILDER'S PERSPECTIVE

T he real estate market is HOT is New Jersey, with a perfect storm of circumstances fueling the frenzy. The pandemic certainly kicked off the need for housing in New Jersey, as many families leave the cities in search of more space and a change to the way they are living. With buyers flocking to the resale market with cash in hand, bidding wars are causing a spike in housing values. Sellers are in control, and many buyers are feeling defeated at the starting line. What are builders experiencing & how is our building industry faring during all of this? Here’s a take from a few of our builder members on what opportunities and obstacles they have faced through COVID-19 and how they have adapted to the current market. From a builder’s perspective: As a real estate salesperson / professional what opportunities and obstacles have you faced through COVID-19 and how have you and your company adapted and overcome? The market has really come full circle since the outbreak last March. The uncertainty of employment, state of the economy and world events created problems for demand back then. Now our biggest challenges are shortages of materials and increased construction costs. The increased demand for suburban housing has created a perfect storm of housing supply shortages which may in turn cause some real inflation.

We have been able to push our home sale pricing and rental rates in the current environment and with interest rates at historic lows, we are able to lock in long term mortgages for all of our operating assets and eliminate interest rate risk.

Jason Kaplan President, Kaplan Companies

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, builders have seen an extraordinary increase in the demand for homes and a rise in sales prices, which has been a silver lining of these difficult times. On the other hand, we have faced our share of obstacles during the pandemic such as compliance with Executive Orders, rising price in building materials and labor, material shortages and delayed deliveries, and of course, the total shutdown of construction in the early days of the pandemic. Palatial Homes has adapted to this "new normal" by following the CDC guidelines on the jobsite, taking necessary measures to keep our subcontractors safe, and by virtually meeting with customers. With vaccines rapidly rolling out and life returning to normal, the opportunities should hopefully continue to grow for the building industry overall, which is something we can all look forward to for the remainder of 2021 and hopefully into 2022.

Linda Bernaski

Bulletin Board | 23 | www.shorebuilders.org