On the latest episode of the National Real Estate Cafe, hosts Don Goettling and Gino Fronti analyze a new report about Housing Starts versus Permits. They break down the report about how many new homes are being introduced into the market and how many permits are being taken out to continue building new projects.

“Housing starts are through the roof,” Don said. “New homes are at the highest levels in years as we have inventory coming onto the market.”

That new housing inventory was desperately needed say the pair, although they are still only making up about 3 percent of the market in general.

Housing permits are down by a bit, which means no builders are applying for permits to build new projects. This slight downward spike is not necessarily a perfect example of what to expect.

“You can’t be consistently pulling massive amounts of permits,” Gino said. “You can only build so many projects and there is only so much land.”

When it comes to pulling permits, it’s also sometimes seasonal, Don said. The builders pull permits for projects that they build at a later date.

“When it comes to permits, as long as the overall trend line is healthy, or in an upward spike, we’re in good shape,” Gino said.

Overall the trend has still been good but there are still some down spikes because of two factors, higher labor costs, and the new tariffs — although Gino disagrees that that the new tariffs have much to do with anything.

The new tariffs may be increasing costs, Don said. Because we are buying steel, aluminum and wood from overseas.

“We are having higher labor costs because we don’t have enough people out there building the homes,” Don said.

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For over five years now, Don & Gino, through the nationally recognized Real Estate Radio Network, created “The Don & Gino Real Estate & Finance Show” to refresh conversations about the real estate and financial markets today.

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