There was a slight uptick today in the index tracking homebuilder confidence, but the number is still extremely low. We’re not going to see any significant increase in new construction of owner-occupied units until much more inventory is absorbed. That’s…
Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson was one of the major proponents of the homebuyer tax credit, a spectacularly failed policy whose only clear beneficiary was the banking system. I discussed the failures of the tax credit here. Now Isakson is selling…
For those of you who come to this blog looking for something other than economic news, hang in there! There has been a lot of interesting and very important news generated by the economy in recent days — and there…
From the SMN today, Local economy still growing, but slowly: “The regional economy is currently being supported by healthy tourism activity, strong ports activity and the improving health of the services sector, including business and professional services and transportation,†[Armstrong…
Sometimes in arguing for the full restoration of the Oglethorpe Plan, Savannah preservationists get accused of various forms of nostalgia — of arguing for preservation for the sake of preservation, of ignoring contemporary needs.
But those accusations show a fundamental lack of understanding about the grid system established by General Oglethorpe when he founded the colony of Georgia in 1733.
Housing economist Tom Lawler has posted some fascinating data about homeownership in this post at Calculated Risk. As Americans have started families later, as they have had more fluid career paths, as they have moved around more before settling, it…
From the AJC this evening: Habitat for Humanity International is now the nation’s 6th largest homebuilder, according to Builder magazine, as its sales of homes in the United States grew from 4,993 in 2005 to 6,032 in 2010, a 17…
There literally isn’t anything in the latest Savannah area MLS data that jumps out at me. (The numbers are typically available on the 9th of each month but I’m just now looking closely at them.) The total number of sales…
I wrote about Green Bridge Farm, a sustainable community in Effingham County, in a post a few weeks ago. Yesterday I went out again to Green Bridge Farm for the open house for Clayton Homes’ i-house, a zero energy home…
Adam Van Brimmer has another interesting and detailed piece about a specific sector of the Savannah housing market today in the Savannah Morning News: Berwick victim of poor timing; will be a ‘viable’ market as economy improves, Realtors say. The…
There’s been a really interesting debate playing out on SavannahNow the last few days. First came this piece about a Savannah retiree, 90-year old Mary Hilton, who has been living for 60 years at the soon-to-be-history Strathmore Estates, which is…
Back in 2008, I wrote a column about Green Bridge Farm, a small sustainable development in Effingham County about a 30-minute drive from downtown Savannah. Michael Maddox’s family has owned the property since the 18th century, and he’s now crafting…
Savannah River Landing — the big empty spot at the east end of River Street next to the Marriott — is by far the most visible sign of the real estate bust in the Savannah area. It’s also an area…
I remain pessimistic about the short- and medium-term prospects for housing prices and construction, but there’s good news in CoreLogic’s data released today: CoreLogic Reports Shadow Inventory Continues to Decline. This doesn’t mean that we’ll work our way through the…
