Brighter Days Just Ahead for Housing

Melbourne, FL – April 01, 2012 – It is becoming clearer day by day that the national economic recovery is gathering momentum, and many of us would say, “It’s about time.” Understand two things please. Number 1: This is NO April Fools joke. Number 2: We at LifeStyle Homes have nothing to complain about. Sales of our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) and truly remarkable Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes have been robust all through the dark night of our Great Recession, but who wouldn’t welcome a stronger economy that would benefit everyone?

The latest dose of good news is the recent release of the Urban Land Institute Consensus Forecast of 38 leading economists that calls for broad improvements in important aspects of the economy to produce genuinely strong results by 2014. Specifically, real GDP (the measure of total value of all goods and services produced in the U.S. economy) will increase by 2.5% in 2012, 3.0% in 2013 and 3.2% in 2013. These are STRONG growth projections. Their effect will be felt by everyone.

This same report calls for total employment to increase by 2 million jobs in 2012, 2.5 million jobs in 2013 and 2.75 million jobs in 2013. It has been a very long time since we have seen job growth like this. The net effect will be to reduce unemployment to 8% by the end of 2012, to 7.5% by the end of 2013 and to 6.9 percent by the end of 2014. This would put us very close to what many economists consider to be inflation-free full employment.

Average home prices, which have been falling for some time now, will flatten out in 2012, rise by 2.0% in 2013 and rise again by 3.5% in 2014, according to these experts. This is truly welcome news for many home owners who desperately need some relief, and it bodes well, also, for new home buyers, who always seem to be energized by the prospect of positive returns on their housing investments. Freshening of housing markets in this way is expected to increase new housing starts from 428,600 in 2011 to 500,000 in 2012, 660,000 in 2013 and 800,000 in 2014.

Needless to say, all of us at LifeStyle Homes are energized by these positive projections. Even so, we must never forget the positive contributions we have received from our wonderful customers. These great people overcame conventional wisdom to do the wise thing and take a strong stand in the emerging energy efficiency economy. They will avoid the growing obsolescence and diminishing values that will afflict conventional homes – even those built recently. We have to thank, also, the world class building scientists at the Florida Solar Energy Center, who showed us how energy efficiency could really work today in new home building – providing better living environments and big cost savings to home owners with the courage to make the change.

Now, let us say once again that this is no April Fool’s Joke. Better days are just ahead. Pass it on!