With the old year rung out and a new one beginning, the House Hunter is putting away the 2004 notebooks, cleaning off the desk and hanging up a new calendar.
More Top Picks Best Reading Lamps For Low Vision
Here’s some of what your correspondent and Chicago area new home buyers are likely to see in 2005:
– Yorkville may well be the next hot spot for metro area development. Mark Malouf, chief operating officer of Oak Brook-based Montalbano Homes, is precicting, “Yorkville is the next Joliet,” referring to the expected ultrarapid growth of the Fox River town, with prospects for more in the next few years.
Malouf made his comments at a December outlook roundtable of 10 builders representing about one-third of the new homes built in the Chicago area.
U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s hometown may have about 10,000 people now, but it has “very aggressive plans. They have big plans to grow,” Malouf said.
Yorkville’s mayor has been quoted as predicting the town’s population, based on current growth, will be 30,000 by 2010.
And Yorkville is not the only area town welcoming newcomers. Sizable new developments are planned for Huntley, Elburn, Lakewood, Elwood and Pingree Grove, west of Elgin.
– Behemoth developments are on the drawing boards. If all goes as announced, a number of new developments will consist of 1,000 new homes or more.
The builders in attendance said the cost of assembling land, getting approvals and other requirements takes as long as four years and, given that lengthy process, it is more cost-efficient to undertake a big project than a small one.
Dan Star, president of the Illinois division of Centex Homes, was among the builders who said a number of the developments are likely to include special tax districts, sometimes called by such titles as “special assessment” (SA), “special service area”(SSA) or “special area assessment”(SAA).
There appears to be an acceleration in the number of such developments, where homeowners pay a special tax or assessment for several years to help fund construction of necessary infrastructure, notably streets and utilities.
Once relatively uncommon in the Chicago area, more builders appear to be signing onto the concept because there can be cost advantages, for builders and buyers, in projects of 500 homes or more in farm communities distant from established population centers.
However, buyers should keep in mind that SA money goes for streets and utilities, not schools, another key issue for many buyers.
As towns and neighborhoods burgeon, some young families are unaware of how many homes are planned. Inevitably, they are dismayed when school construction fails to keep pace with incoming students.
Too often, higher taxes for new schools follow new development. A wise buyer talks not only with the builder but also makes a call to the local community development director to ask about local growth plans. A call to the local school administrator to ask how the district plans to deal with the development could prove useful as well.
– More builders are teaming up. Bigger developments can mean the opportunity to sell a wide sprectrum of housing; so more builders are looking to work together.
“It gives more variety in look” said Daniel Urben, vice president of sales and marketing for Lennar based in Hoffman Estates.
Lennar as well as Concord Homes, division of Lennar, and Ryland Homes are joining forces in a 2,000-home project near Huntley.
Urben said it is an “advantage for the public to come in and see they have three different opportunities [of look and price] in one place.”
Teaming up is not new. For example, Lakewood Homes and Del Webb, a division of Pulte, combined forces in creating Grand Haven in Romeoville, a development for people age 55 and older.
The partnering in months ahead will come in all types of projects and take place among builders of all sizes.
One example: Airhart Construction, based in Wheaton, plans to work with Northbrook-based Focus Development in a downtown Wheaton project.
– There will be more ranch-style floor plans and additional sales emphasis on “flexible” space. Star, of Centex, said his firm will add several new ranch plans because of the demand for one-story living.
Other builders are likely to concentrate on trying to demonstrate for buyers that their plans have flexible space.
“Convertible space is so important” said Robert Meyn, vice president of sales for Ryland Homes. The “bonus” room over the garage is one common variation, but the den, which can be a bedroom, is another.
Rising land, labor and building materials costs mitigate against bigger houses, as do the prospects for higher mortgage interest rates for buyers. Builders will try to counter the trends by emphasizing the flexibility of spaces in a plan.
Scott Pjesky, executive vice-president of Kensington Homes in Naperville, said his firm is “reducing our plan inventory.”
Instead of offering 10 floor plans, the company may have only five “with flexibility, ” he said.
More Top Picks Wire Landscape
On a more personal note: As regular readers may remember, a year ago I wrote about a major fire in my home of more than 20 years.
Thanks to the many people who have asked how the renovation is going. The answer has been: S-L-O-W-L-Y in large part due to the other demands on the contractor.
In all fairness, I must say by summer there was a psychic toll that I never anticipated in the intermediate aftermath of the fire. Discouragement at the loss and dislocation of personal belongs, not to mention coping with a temporary abode, set in.
My initial can-do spirit lagged. It all seemed too much to try to rebuild while juggling full-time work, trying to keep up with an adult child and relatives who live in other cities and friends.
I think we have slogged through that hard part, however. I am happy to report the renovation pace is picking up as 2005 begins–so I have high hopes of returning to my home within a matter of months.
– – –
Housing trends for 2005
– In the Chicago area, more home builders are planning mega-developments, as a way to provide units quickly while holding down costs.
– Builders in some cases will team up, to offer a variety of housing styles in a single development.
– More developments will offer a ranch-style floor plan, partly to meet demand from buyers older than 55.
– More developments will use special taxing districts, commonly called SSAs, to help pay for sewers and streets.
– Bonus rooms and other flexible ways to use space will be offered by more builders, helping to provide more choices with fewer floor plans.
– Builders in a few communities will be required to offer sprinklers to suppress fires, which can add perhaps $4,000 or $5,000 to the cost of a $300,000 home.
– The Chicago area is expected to see construction of more than 30,000 housing units in 2005, a slight rise from 2004.