San Francisco Business Times
From The Article:
Standard Pacific Homes is seizing on economic recovery to jump back into selling homes on both sides of the bay.
The homebuilder, based in Southern California, has six communities selling more than 500 units in Dublin, San Mateo, Antioch and Brentwood and plans to begin selling 50 units in Livermore early next year.
“Our volume is up significantly,” said Tom Burrill, Standard Pacific’s Bay Area division president. “During the downturn, we tried to acquire the best sites we could.”
The new home market has roared back to life in the Bay Area with homebuilders competing for rare development sites and bringing thousands of new homes to the market.
Other builders, including Shea Homes, Discovery Builders, KB Home and Summerhill Homes, have dozens of new home developments on the market.
The upswing pales in comparison to the real estate boom in the mid-2000s, but mirrors the region’s recent job growth, said Dean Wehrli, who covers Northern California markets for JohnBurns Real Estate Consulting. Prices for new homes are low compared with boom years, making home buying affordable, and for those who can secure a mortgage, interest rates are historically low.
“The Bay Area is one of the strongest housing markets in the country,” Wehrli said. “It’s clearly a seller’s market. That pushes buyers to the new home market because they can’t find the house they want.”