MANITOWOC (NBC 26) — House prices are up and sales are down. There was a 29 percent decrease in houses purchased in Manitowoc County from last May to this May. Another problem with the housing crisis is high building costs.
Nicole Wooten is a realtor in Manitowoc. In the high demand, low supply housing market, she knows as well as anyone the cost of building does not help home hunters.
"A lot of people think that they can build a brand new house for $300,000 or under and realistically the spec homes hitting the market are upper [300's] if not low [400's]," Wooten said. "I have a lot of clients come to me that they can't, obviously, find their ideal house that they are looking for, so they say 'Hey, I'll just find some land and I'll build.' Then they come back to me and say, 'I had no idea building was so expensive.'"
The combination of the two creates a perfect storm for home buyers.
"There's not enough inventory for people to move to what they want to that already exist," said Wooten. "Then people think they can build and they realize they can't afford to build."
According to Wooten, the average cost of building a home in Manitowoc County is $230 to $250 per square foot. This is compared to few years ago when building costs were just above $200 per square foot on average.
"You're either renting, or you're compromising on a house that is OK you might not love and you're probably gonna be in a bidding war for it," Wooten says. "Or you're stuck at saving and waiting for the future".
Wooten says that all many potential home builders can do is be patient.
She says, "It's really gonna come down to something changing with people either saving longer and affording that differently, or just buying resale homes."
