BYRON CENTER, Mich. (WZZM) — If you’ve been looking for a new home in greater Grand Rapids, you know how tight the market is. You can blame it on the weather.
The positive is the economy has improved, so everyone is back in the market to buy. But there’s a shortage of houses and the long winter has delayed construction until now.
Mother Nature decided to save the last day in March for the first real, warm day to get some home construction done.
“On this one here, we’re probably a month to six weeks behind,” said Steve Jahnke, with Jahnke Builders. His crew was in southwest Byron Center building a house, and says frozen lots, snow, and rain have put hammers on hold, and the Frost Law has forced trucks to restrict their loads.
“Nobody wants to come out here with a half-load of sand and make 10 trips,” he said.
That created problems for many area construction companies.
“A 30 day lag in homes being built,” said Jeff Timmer, a mortgage officer with The Bank of Holland. He says there isn’t just a delay in construction.
“People didn’t want to list their homes when you couldn’t really view them because of all the snow we had,” he said.
He says these factors will meet to create the ‘Home Buyers Stampede.’ Buyers unable to shop during the extended winter will rush to grab the houses now. But Timmer points out that sellers have to find a house too, and first.
“The catch-22 is no homes for sale when you want to buy a home,” he said.
Greater Grand Rapids just doesn’t have enough houses. The Grand Rapids Association of Realtors says 2,456 houses are currently listed, compared to 2,931 at this time last year. GRAR says a good market is 5,000 -7,000 homes in this area.
The outskirts of Grand Rapids are still the hot spots, for building and for selling.
Jim Tibbe Homes says they’rebuilding in Byron Center, Rockford, Hudsonville, Holland, and Grand Haven, with prices running about 10-15 percent higher than last year in some areas.
The construction company hired more people to meet the expected 20 percent increase in business.