A HOMEBUILDING INDUSTRY PUBLICATION Dallas • Fort Worth | August 2020 THE NEW NORMALA DREAM KITCHEN IS A SMART KITCHEN I-9 CHANGES “Developing neighborhoods is one of most fulfilling professions anyone could ever have.” – Lee Nicol, Lee Nicol Interests LLC2 We lead the industry in change. No matter the location or complexity of your development, we offer customized services to fit your specific needs, including credit reporting, appraisals, property valuation, flood determination, document preparation, maps imaged data, and more. You care about your customer, and so do we. We even work with you to offer property & casualty insurance, home warranties and other convenient products to your buyer. ©2017 First American Financial Corporation and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | NYSE: FAF | 45147780917 CONNECTION PARK 4795 Regent Blvd., Mail Code: 2003, Irving, Texas 75063 (817) 918-2321 SMARTER PROCESSES SIMPLER SYSTEMS FASTER CLOSINGS3 Building Savvy WE KNOW YOUR DIRT! 52 YEARS SERVICE & FOUNDATION REPAIR Perma-Pier's knowledge of Texas soils — and what we do with that knowledge — are unmatched. CALL US TODAY | 214-637-1444 | permapier.com “ ” Take Your “New Normal” to New Heights Summer sales indicate that we as an industry are rebounding faster that anyone thought. Some builders in the state are reporting sales numbers back in pace with the great year most of them enjoyed in 2019, anticipating to finish 2020 only slightly below their original projections. Will the virus let up or come back? How will that affect us long term? With change lies oppor- tunity for those that seize it and choose to persevere in spite of challenges. In some cases, being the hold-out in an area can be beneficial (study Toyota’s approach). But on the other hand, most of us aren’t Toyota, with the ability to hold out for followers in one segment while also having a portfolio of offer- ings that illustrate our brand’s forward-thinking and cutting-edge approach in other segments. When it comes to some things, we expect change and would be disappointed if there was nothing new to observe. Our Focus Section explores your clients’ expectations of a dream kitchen — one essential room in any home where style and technology changes are constant. While you may embrace style changes, are there other types of change that you find less exciting, or resist trying to stay current? Is it time to rethink your marketing strategy? Is it time to add one of those millennial minds to your staff that can boost your brand and do all that social interacting now required? Should you reinvest some of that SBA funding into building a better, more interactive website? [from the publishers] Indeed, savvy builders will rise to the challenge of the new normal, adapting and making necessary changes while holding steady in their focus on customer service and best practices. Beverly and Steve Smirnis beverly@buildingsavvy.com steve@buildingsavvy.com (817) 975-7235 DISCLAIMER: Any articles included in this publication and/or opinions expressed therein do not necessarily reflect the views of N2 Publishing but remain solely those of the author(s). The paid advertisements contained within the Building Savvy magazine are not endorsed or recommended by N2 Publishing or the publisher. Therefore, neither N2 Publishing nor the publisher may be held liable or responsible for business practices of these companies. NOTE: When community events take place, photographers may be present to take photos for that event and they may be used in this publication.4 It’s hot! And we’re not talking only the weather. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, pending resales increased 44 percent in April, and single-family permits were up 12 percent in May as the market rebounded from March lows. Proving wrong predictions of substantial home price declines, Case-Shiller national data indicated a 4.7-percent year-over-year price gain in April. CoreLogic is still saying by the end of summer, buying will slacken, and we expect home prices will show declines; Dallas-Fort Worth home costs are likely to be 5.89 percent lower by next spring, according to CoreLogic. Pent-up demand and low interest rates and have aided the bounce-back. In June, homes up for sale in the Dallas-Fort Worth area took a median of just 47.5 days to sell, according to Realtor.com. According to Freddie Mac, the average 30-year mortgage interest rate was just below 3.1 percent at the start of July. Weathering the storm better than anticipated also has its downside Lumber mills closed in the spring due to stay-at- home and social-distancing measures enacted by state and local governments. Lumber producers assumed a large drop in demand, thus those that remained operational decreased their production significantly. Nor did anyone anticipate the massive uptick in demand from do-it-yourselfers (DIY) and big-box retailers during the pandemic. All of these factors contribute to a two-year high in lumber prices reported at the beginning of July. With lumber prices up 50 percent since April, build- ers are hopeful that the Commerce Department will lower the countervailing and antidumping duties from 20 percent to just over 8 percent following an administrative review of the tariffs on Canadian lumber. [industry news]5 Building Savvy EPA Proposes to Lower Permissible Amounts of Lead in Construction Dust The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long sought solutions to increase the effec- tiveness of lead abatement in pre-1978 dwellings and lower the risk of lead exposure. It recently released a proposal that would lower the “clearance levels” for dust on floor and windowsills after lead removal activities from 40 micrograms of lead in dust per square foot to 10 micrograms per square foot for floor dust and from 250 to 100 micrograms per square foot for windowsill dust. Dallas Metro Area Among Nation’s Most Valuable Residential Property Median home prices in our local area have grown by more than 70 percent since the Great Recession, according to LendingTree.com. And after a decade of rising home prices, the Dallas area is now ranked as one of the most valuable residential property markets in the country with the value of the area’s homes estimated at $628 billion. Houston ranks 13th nationally with $534 billion in properties. Austin is 24th with $248 billion, and San Antonio’s $187 billion in residential values put it at 31 among the 50 largest U.S. cities. That puts Dallas ninth among the nation’s top residential markets based on an estimate of total values in 50 U.S. metro areas by LendingTree.com. Residential values are the largest in the New York City area, which has $2.8 trillion in properties. Los Angeles is second with $2.3 trillion of home value. San Francisco is the only other trillion-dollar market at $1.3 trillion. Centurion American’s Hurricane Creek North in Anna To Break Ground in Early 2021 Centurion American recently got the zoning ap- proval it needed for the north Collin County project, which is part of a mixed-use development called The Villages of Hurricane Creek. Located near U.S. Highway 75, it will include sites for 984 single-family homes, including single-story and two-story houses plus town homes. Construction of the first phase of the development will start in early 2021. Additionally, The Villages of Hurricane Creek will include 400 multifamily residences, and 50,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space. A community garden, hiking trails and an amenity center are also planned.6 Building Savvy In the Construction hiring up by more than 300,000 NAHB reported that home builders and remodelers added 224,200 jobs in May and another 83,200 in June, hiking total residential construction employment to 2.8 million. Since the low point following the Great Recession, residential construc- tion has gained 834,200 positions. The construction related jobs are broken down as 795,000 builders and 2.0 million residential specialty trade contractors. [training tomorrow’s workforce] Unemployment Numbers Show Recovery In June, the unemployment rate for construction workers dropped to 12.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, from 15.2 percent in May. USMCA to add jobs; boost wages The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) signed by President Trump on January 29 went into effect on July 1, replacing the outdated 25-year-old NAFTA. By modernizing and strength- ening free trade with our largest trading partners, the U.S. International Trade Commission predicts that the USMCA will create more than 175,000 new jobs, add about $70 billion to the economy and boost wages for American workers.7 (214) 957-8077 Quartz & Natural Stone Countertops Serving the DFW area ajoyofgranite.com8 favorites from the 2019 Orlando Builders Association Parade of Homes judging event VISIT...SUBSCRIBE / THESAVVYLIST.COM Connect with the people you want to meet, go the places you want to go.... Join Beverly & Steve Smirnis as they travel to Florida to judge the award finalists in the Greater Orlando Builders Association’s Parade of Homes. Your Connection Concierge WHAT'S UP ON THE SAVVY LIST?9 Legendary History and Natural Beauty Create a Homeowner’s Paradise at Westworth Falls Special to Building Savvy by Linda Pavlik Residential neighborhood developer and builder Lee Nicol must see the beauty in the land before he invests. Open spaces, a natural waterfall, lush landscape, and trees. Not just any trees but ones that have survived gen- erations of good times – and maybe not so good. “Who would have thought that I would be developing where the trees are actually historical?” he laughs when he thinks about his own age (which he does not disclose) and the neighborhoods he’s built. “For ex- ample, the Seven Cousins Burr Oak (in his current project) is estimated to be centuries old, and, be assured, I am doing my part to make sure it continues to distinguish the property.” “Westworth Falls is among my favorite developments,” says Lee, who operates as Lee Nicol Interests, LLC. For decades he has participated in partnerships and development companies in the Metroplex as well as in Austin and Central Texas that have changed housing paradigms. He skillfully identifies locations that exceed the expectations of local, regional, and national homebuilders, and his neighborhoods quickly become favorites. A long-time Fort Worth resident, Lee is on the Westworth property daily, breathing the clean air and marveling at the only natural water fall in Tarrant County. Residents frequently see him sitting leisurely on a swing in their private neighborhood park, which is connected by pri- vate access to Trailhead Park and, ultimately, the more than 70 miles of the Fort Worth-Dallas Trinity Trails. [savvy developer] RNext >