It’s Boxing Day morning, let’s ring out the year,
For Sixteen’s a-fast-fading, a fresh start nigh here.
The job sites are rocking like you’d hardly believe,
In a blitzkrieg to settle by Jan One’s eve, eve, or eve.
Finish trades are on OT, and the Supers on edge,
All the non-recourse lendees are out on a ledge.
Sister Metrostudy’s resting, BUILDER’s staff is as well,
But a newsletter’s scheduled, so I thought what the hell.
Amid a triad of pain points whose grip seemed unending,
You fought tooth-and-nail for lots, labor, and lending,
As all the while home buyers, awaited the moment
Fear turns to greed, desire to need, trickle to foment.
They’d leap and they’d cheer in a collective hooray,
If a new home could be had at south of 200K.
Wasn’t it fact, builders could build new for less?
Wasn’t LGI proof, also Horton’s Express?
How had it eluded so many, tho’ they try like the devil
To build what they’re best at, good old-school entry-level?
To understand best what builders are and they’re not,
It’s vital to grasp what each pays for a lot.
Some call it a science, some alchemy, some art,
But land—finite and precious—is where builders’ costs start.
To get, entitle and develop it, they pay and they pay,
With cash, time, and talent, and delay after delay.
Why are builders’ prices so high? Go ask regulators.
Layer on layer of fees count as big escalators.
And all of those costs, all that entitlement load
Doesn’t even factor for the impact of code!
And speaking of impacts and variable X factors,
What about MIA labor, once abundant subcontractors?
Slab pourers, framers, roofers, masons, brick-layers
Electricians, plumbers, and 22 or so more players,
Each with an indispensable role to complete
On budgets that go squishy, as the deadlines they meet,
Leaving builders to wonder whence the next wave will come
As they look to the high-schools and the trade schools for some,
Who can handle the heat, and the hours, and the pay,
And still not be certain when may come the day
Their services might no longer be considered required,
Their skill obsolete, involuntarily retired,
By recession or worse yet, says the futurist hinter,
Automation, robotics, or the dreaded 3D printer.
However, rather than dwell upon robots and drones,
Let’s consider our present-day access to loans.
For builders and home buyers alike, we hear,
Finance is out there, as bankers make clear
They’re back in the business of home real estate lending,
With higher rates near, and bank-friendly leverage trending.
Just as new buyers seem poised to storm homeownership’s gates
All eyes fix on Fed’s Yellen and her take on I-rates.
The days of dirt-cheap money may be gonzo for good,
But past history tells us rate barriers never stood
To block off a home buyer’s American dream
To own a new home, a goal and ambition most supreme.
As Seventeen dawns in a few days from now,
May it bring health, joy, and closings, as more Top 10s we vow.
