New home building, sales slide

Unless the job market rebounds and people feel more secure about the economy, don't look for new home sales to rebound anytime soon, Dudley Hampton, immediate past president of the Hernando Builders Association said Friday.

His comments come two days after the U.S. Commerce Department released a new report showing sales of newly built, single-family homes declined 11.2 percent in January, setting a new record.

The 309,000 units sold are the lowest since 1963, when the department first started tracking such information.

There were 13 single-family permits pulled in Hernando County in January, down slightly from 15 in December. There were only three pulled in October and November.

One year ago, there were 26 permits pulled.

Builder Robert Eaton attributed the positive December new home statistics to county commissioners' recent decision to cut impact fees almost in half for one year to jumpstart housing construction.

Effective last Dec. 1, impact fees dropped from the current $9,200 to $4,848.

Brenda McDaniel, the HBA's executive officer, said her organization tracks the sale of new homes strictly through the number of single-family residential permits pulled. Neither the Hernando Association of Realtors nor the property appraiser's office could refine the data to include the number of sales of new homes that have been on the market for any length of time.

"(The permit data) gives us at least a starting point," McDaniel said.

Hampton is not optimistic.

"I don't see the outlook for this year as being rosy," he said.

Hampton said job security is "weighing heavily on everyone" and President Barack Obama and his administration have not given clear signals to banks as to lending regulations.

"They haven't upheld their part in freeing up money to lend and, as a result, the banks are cautious and rightfully so," he said. "If you don't know what the game rules are, you don't know how to play."

Restrictive lending practices are crippling small business' opportunities to expand or even survive because they cannot obtain a line of credit, he said.

Hampton points to two companies at the Airport Industrial Park which, it was announced this week, are planning to get out of their lease early.

Airport Director Don Silvernell announced Tuesday that Portal Aviation LLC and Duratek Precast Technologies Inc. were asking for permission to break their leases because of the struggling economy.

Commissioners sided with the companies after hearing Silvernell explain the circumstances.

"That's a very good example," Hampton said.

"You've got a business person with a good business who might have a cash flow problem and if you want a line of credit, it's almost impossible to get one," he said. "People aren't going to buy homes if they feel their future is uncertain or if the company they work for is uncertain."

Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, said January's disappointing news "highlights just how fragile the economic and housing recovery is right now, and the uncertainties that continue to weigh on consumers, particularly with regard to concerns about job security."

"Even with today's exceptionally favorable home buying conditions - including low interest rates, stabilizing house prices and the availability of home buyer tax credits -many consumers simply weren't confident enough to go forward with a new-home purchase in the beginning of this year," he said.