New-home construction picks up

Published: Sunday, 8/3/2014 - Updated: 21 hours ago

BY TYREL LINKHORN BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

Rick Macek of Macek Custom Builders has spent the last few years focusing on renovation jobs, but hes recently started taking calls from people who are testing the waters of building a brand new home.

Until I get them signed on the dotted line you can never say, but Ive given three quotes in the last month, where in the past that would be in a year, he said. Thats pretty good. Im encouraged by it.

Area home builders such as Mr. Macek say theyre busier now than they have been in years, but the market for new construction in the Toledo area remains far below what it was before the Great Recession struck.

In 2004, nearly 1,600 new single-family homes went up in Lucas and Wood counties. By 2009, that number had withered to 268. Many established home builders took up remodeling jobs to survive. Some relative newcomers were pushed out of business.

Toledos real estate market has hardly boomed since then, but it has rebounded. During the last four years, existing homes in Lucas and upper Wood counties are selling for more money and are selling faster. According to the Toledo Board of Realtors, the average selling price through June was $116,513, up 17 percent from the same period in 2011. Meanwhile, the average home is on the market 114 days this year, down from 129 days in 2011.

Those modest market improvements are extending to new construction.

At a recent board meeting for the Home Builders Association of Greater Toledo, board president Chuck Barchick was apologetic. It was a few minutes after 3 p.m., and he was the only one there. However, he was willing to forgive the tardiness. The other members, he said, were out on job sites.

About four years ago you could have come in here, and wed have all been sitting here, he joked, gesturing to the empty chairs.

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New-home construction picks up