The potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak on home building is playing out outside Minneapolis, where builders are expressing deep concern that the epidemic could shut down new-home sales. The Star-Tribune reports:
Just a couple weeks ago, Tony Wiener’s Oakdale-based home building and remodeling company was on track to have one of its busiest years ever. Today, he’s grappling with what appears to be a sudden recession that could shrink his business could shrink by nearly half this year.
“We’re on edge,” said Wiener, who lost one new home buyer and two remodeling jobs this week. “We’re just waiting for the next shoe to drop.”
As schools close and bars and restaurants shutter, homebuilders are still hammering away across the Twin Cities metro on job sites where social distancing happens naturally and for the most part isn’t difficult to accomplish. But in the midst of what was expected to be a near-record year for home and apartment construction, the industry is facing a barrage of challenges that could quickly slow homebuilding in the Twin Cities, which is already navigating a dire shortage of housing in some parts of the metro.
Aside from the question of whether people can afford to buy a home or rent an apartment in the coming months, tops on builders’ list of concerns is that suppliers will no longer be able to deliver key building components and that municipal building inspections will slow or be halted, shuttering job sites during the prime construction season.
