New home construction ignites growth in Butler, Warren counties

Residential building in Butler and Warren counties has entered a resurgence as the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession, and remodeling contractors are also reaping the benefits of the industry’s explosive growth.

Home builders in four area counties — Butler, Warren, Hamilton and Clermont counties — received 2,561 new single-family permits in 2016, a 13.7 percent overall increase compared to the 2,253 permits issued in 2015, according to the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati.

The “extremely robust” new home growth enjoyed in 2016 is expected to continue this year, according to Dan Dressman, the HBA’s executive director.

“This winter’s mild weather is allowing builders to get ahead of the spring buying market,” Dressman said. “Also, the demand is there and it’s improved. We’re on an upswing and I think a lot of it has to do with people are feeling a lot better about their own fiscal situation.”

In addition, consumer attitudes about the economy have improved dramatically, and “people are generally optimistic about the future right now,” Dressman said.

“That typically lends itself well to people making big expenditures like buying a house. They may have been sitting tight before,” he said. “The other thing that people are starting to see is their values have started to increase in their existing home, whereas previously a lot of them were under water and they really were not in a position to even consider selling.

“They’re seeing the inventory is low on existing (homes) and people are buying homes up quickly. The time on the market has diminished significantly and I think that is another major factor that lends itself to growth of new homes.”

It’s taken years for the home building industry to recover after years of a near halt in new building projects. The amount of permits for single-family homes in 2016 for the region exceeded 2014 when 2,049 permits were filed. They also surpassed 2013, when 2,065 permits were filed and 2012, when 1,603 were filed.

Last year’s surge means a 14.6 percent increase in single-family permits for Butler County, an increase of 20.1 percent for Warren County, 8.3 percent for Clermont County and 4.7 percent for Hamilton County.

Business doubled last year for luxury home builder Todd Homes, according to owner Todd Hall, who said he typically received one call every three weeks during the recession from someone interested in a new home in Butler or Warren counties.

He said he fielded eight calls on Monday alone, something he attributed to renewed confidence in the economy and the presidential election.

“People right now are spending more money than I’ve ever seen them spend,” Hall said. “I went to the Barrett-Jackson (collector) car show in Phoenix about a month ago and you have to be pre-qualified and you have to have your money there and I watched the crowd spend $200 million in one week.”

Residential and commercial building matters to the growth of the local economy because the construction industry contributed more than $22 billion to the state GDP in 2015. Last July, approximately 205,500 people were employed by the construction industry in Ohio.

Annual pay for construction workers in Ohio was an average of $55,900 in 2015, about 20 percent more than all private sector employees in the state, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. Homebuilders have seen 2016 as the comeback year, after the industry tanked with the Great Recession.

Although builder confidence remains high, single-family home building nationwide is expected to level out in the next year, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

“Regulatory burdens remain a major challenge to our industry, and NAHB looks forward to working with the new Congress and administration to help alleviate some of the pressures that are holding small businesses back and making homes less affordable,” said Granger MacDonald, a home builder and NAHB chairman.

Business at Craftsmen Home Improvements, which has locations in West Chester Twp. and Dayton, has increased by leaps and bounds the past several years since the housing market collapsed back in 2007 and surged “easily 20 percent or more” in 2016 compared to 2015, according to co-owner Doug Readnower.

“We could barely keep up with it,” Readnower said of the growth experienced by other established remodelers and his company, one of the 500 largest remodelers in the nation.

This year started off slow but is starting to pick up, he said. The company — which performs complete remodelings of kitchens, bathrooms and basements — is booked for the next 10 to 12 weeks with clients.

“I think (this year) will be at least as good as last year,” Readnower said.

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While much of the business boost can be attributed to the company’s best customers, empty nesters looking to “do something for themselves” now that their children are grown and gone, the younger market is starting to play an increasingly important role.

“Traditionally, it has been the older couples because that’s who has the money, but in the Cincinnati market, there are certainly plenty of younger folks where the husband wife have executive or management-level positions and they can afford to do the remodeling.”

Staff Writer Kara Driscoll contributed to this report.

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