Federal and local government agencies have added significant building costs that did not exist as recently as 15 years ago, which has had an adverse effect on many housing markets, according to a recent survey from John Burns Real Estate. The survey found that in many instances, the government added these extra costs in order to protect the environment and improve the surrounding area for existing residents.
Analysis of the top 33 markets in the country found that the number of new home communities has increased by only 4 percent in the last year. At that pace, the number of new homes permitted will not reach 1 point 1 million until 2023, which is consistent with historical averages. The survey concludes that that there is a huge correlation between government attitudes and new home construction and prices.
The Federal Reserve announced it would wait for the U.S. economy to stabilize a bit more before raising interest rates. The Fed released the minutes of its June Federal Open Market Committee meeting Wednesday, saying that given the pace of improvement in labor market conditions, which slowed in April and May, and the faster-than-expected rise in the gross domestic product, quote, consumer price inflation continued to run below the Committee’s longer-run objective of 2 percent. Close quote