Manteca new home starts up 50%!

It isn’t 2000’s torrid pace of 1,074 new housing starts but given the economic conditions Manteca is arguably in the middle of a mini-housing boom with 289 new single-family home housing starts in the first eight months of 2010.

Builders started 60 new homes in August for the best single month in at least six years. It is just over double the housing starts in July when builders began work on 29 new homes within Manteca’s city limits.

Manteca’s 50 percent jump from July to August for new housing starts is in stark contrast to national new housing starts that reflected a 1.8 percent increase going from 559,000 new starts in July to 569,000 in August based on U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development statistics.
It also is in sharp contrast to California as a whole. The California Building Industry Association reported starts for single family homes in August were down 15 percent from July dropping to 3,598 new starts

Actual housing units that have been completed or started so far this year in Manteca comes in at 341 units when the 52-unit subsidized senior housing complex known as the Magnolia Court apartments that broke ground in January behind Dribbles Car Wash on North Main Street is included in the count.

Manteca is on target to reach the predicted 350 hew housing starts for 2010 that both the city and developers anticipated at the start of the year.

August also marked the first month in nearly three years that Del Webb wasn’t the leading builder in Manteca when it came to housing starts. Pulte Homes started 17 homes at Del Webb at Woodbridge, just one less than at the various Woodside Homes neighborhoods in Manteca. Builders view that as a sign that the non-age restricted market is starting to pick up in Manteca.

New home buyers were looking for small homes back in February 2008 when the typical new home permit in Manteca was for a 1,577-square-foot home. By May of 2008 the average size of a new home being built climbed up to 1,760 square feet.

The typical new home start in Manteca during August averaged 2,396 square feet.

August to August comparisons show in 2009 the average new home cost $148,559 to build and in 2010 it cost $144,679 to underscore value pricing is driving sales. Many Manteca builders, though, are helped by the fact they have already written off the cost of developing finished lots after the housing market stalled. More than 600 finished lots remain giving Manteca at edge in the Northern San Joaquin valley housing market.

Del Webb last month became the first builder in more than three years to break ground on new lots. They are adding 49 lots costing $1.7 million in grading and infrastructure for the phase that extends Del Webb Woodbridge down to Lathrop Road.

The prices for Manteca new home construction do not reflect between $50,000 and $65,000 per home in growth fees and connection charges or the land costs and developer cost and profit.

In 2009, Manteca topped all San Joaquin Valley jurisdictions with 304 new homes built and sold. Next closest was Stockton at 120. Eight new homes were built in Modesto during 2009 while six were started in Tracy based on permits issued by various cities.

By Dennis Wyatt
Managing Editor
dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
209-249-3532

229 homes started so far this year in Manteca

Manteca is on pace to again lead the Northern San Joaquin Valley in housing starts.

Builders so far in 2010 have started 229 single family homes including three custom homes through July 31. That is in addition to the 52-unit subsidized senior housing complex known as the Magnolia Court apartments that broke ground in January behind Dribbles Car Wash on North Main Street. Housing starts in July numbered 29.

Pulte Homes continues to dominate new housing starts in Manteca as it has for the last 26 months. Seven of the new home starts in July were in the 55 years and older age-restricted Del Webb at Woodbridge community. So far for 2010 almost three out of every 10 new homes started in Manteca have been in Del Webb at Woodbridge.

In 2009, Manteca topped all San Joaquin Valley jurisdictions with 304 new homes built and sold. Next closest was Stockton at 120. Eight new homes were built in Modesto during 2009 while six were started in Tracy based on permits issued by various cities.

As of June, Manteca was 100 ahead of the rest of the Northern San Joaquin Valley in terms of housing starts for far in 2010.

A new builder started their own neighborhood in Manteca in July.

K. Hovnanian Homes purchased the remaining 55 lots in the Anderson Homes neighborhood on the northeast corner of South Main Street and Woodward Avenue last month. Three permits were issued for model homes in July for the neighborhood dubbed Medallion.

They are offering three home designs ranging from 1,886 to 2,358 square feet. One- and two-story homes will be available at Medallion with home prices expected to start in the mid $200,000s.

Resales on pace for 1,140 deals
The new home sales have had little impact on the resale market that is still flooded with foreclosures.

There have been 703 existing homes sold in Manteca this year as of Friday. At the current pace 1,140 resale homes will close escrow by year’s end.

If that happens, it will mark the third consecutive year more than 1,100 existing homes have sold in Manteca.
There were a record 1,211 existing homes sold in 2009 and 1,165 resales that closed escrow in 2009. That compares to 402 in 2007 when the bubble started deflating.

Median prices dropped from a high of $345,000 in 2007 on existing homes to $185,000 today. That reflects just under a $4,000 jump over 2009 prices that bottomed out at $178,000.

Well under growth cap
Manteca has started 281 housing units including multiple family dwellings in the first seven months of 2010.
That means a little over a third of the housing allowed under the growth cap established in 1988 have occurred in 2010 to date.

Manteca’s growth control policy limits sewer connections to 3.9 percent of the total of all housing existing in Manteca as of Dec. 31 of the previous year.

The growth management ordinance does not differentiate between single family homes and multiple unit housing complexes such as duplexes and apartments.

Manteca becoming city of single family homes
Single family homes at the end of 2009 numbered 23,169 in Manteca or 77.9 percent of all housing stock. That is a larger share than 10 years prior in 1999 when there were 16,812 single family homes that accounted for 74.1 percent of all housing stock.
The non-single family homes include apartments, mobile homes, duplexes, and triplexes.

The 29 single family homes started in July have an average construction price of $139,739. That figure reflects only the actual cost of construction. It excludes land, builder margin, subdivision infrastructure, and growth and connection fees.

By Dennis Wyatt
Managing Editor
dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
209-249-3532

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