Agent: Home Construction Helps Cities - Especially With Jobs - and Sales Could Increase Later in 2011

There is a correlation between home ownership and the economy and jobs. There is definitely a reason why economists always base their reports on the status of both the job and housing markets. Jobs enable people to buy houses, building houses brings jobs and revenue to the communities.

While homeowners are naturally concerned about the value of their homes and buyers are waiting for the market to go even lower, communities are feeling the pain of decreasing income.

The National Association of Home Builders housing policy department prepared a report for the Master Builders of King and Snohomish County about the economic impact of home construction in the community that the homes are built.

In their report:

The construction of 100 residential homes generates:

• 311 local jobs in construction and construction-related industries
• Approximately $18.1 million in local income
• More than $2.8 million in local revenue and fees.

The construction of 100 multi-family homes generates:

• 188 local jobs in construction and construction-related industries
• Approximately $11.3 million in local revenue
• More than $1.4 million in local tax revenues and fees

These numbers do not take into consideration the money owners spend to furnish, decorate and improve their homes.

Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors chief economist, said more sales activity might take place later this year. "The pace of sales activity in the second half of the year is expected to be stronger than the first half, and will be much stronger than the second half of last year," he said.

Three of the four regions in the United States posted declines in sales and value in May. Existing home sales in the western part of the country remained unchanged from the prior month. 

"The price decline could be diminishing, as buyers recognize great bargain prices and the highest affordability conditions in 40 years. This will help mitigate further price drops," Yun said. "Home prices are rising or very stable in local markets with improved employment condition."

Most new economic reports use information from multiple sources. Local conditions sometimes do not mirror national statistics.

The real estate market in Sammamish and the neighboring communities is holding steady. Homes are selling and new construction is beginning to increase.

Based on numbers from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, there is no clear fluctuation in housing sales in the last 90 days. In the last 30 days, 134 homes have gone on the market in Sammamish, of which 21 have sold with a market time averaging 89 days. 

In the last 30 to 60 days, 139 homes were listed for sale with 26 sales and a market time of 62 days.

In the last 60 to 90 days, 113 homes were listed with 18 of them selling. The average market time for these homes was 65 days.

If the numbers compiled by the National Association of Realtors are correct, Washington is beginning to experience some moderate job growth after two years of decline.

Job growth directly parallels the increase of housing starts. This is good news for the real estate industry as well as communities, all of which are struggling to find the dollars to improve their cities.

Joan Probala is the managing broker for Issaquah Windermere (Windermere Real Estate/East Inc.). She has 30 years of experience in real estate, construction and sales.