Seems to me that bids are firming up, so if you are thinking of building, now may be the time before there are significant upticks. I do not have any hard evidence to support that thought, but I do have empirical evidence. One example, the other day I talked with a plumber about a huge job that he is plumbing. The project has been going on for three years. The owner has been building the house in stages, then stopping for a few months, then asking everyone to re-bid their respective jobs, expecting the bids to go down from the previous bids as the world became closer to imploding. The owner’s system worked as the contractors became evermore desperate to hang onto their jobs, until recently. The plumber said, with a big grin, “The last time the homeowner asked everyone to re-bid a month ago, all the bids came back 15% or more higher than the previous bids.” This could be more of an example of a revolt and not of an uptick in bid prices, so another example. I talked with a builder the other day and asked, “How’s business?” He said verbatim, “I have never been this busy. There are not enough workers for the amount of work out there.”
Drive around the island and there are building projects going on everywhere. How about some of the new developments:
-Gingy Lane
-Pilgrim Place
-Olde Westmoor Farm Road
-Finback Lane
-Hydrangea Lane
-Blackfish Lane
-Ellen’s Way
-Nanahumacke
Whoa!!!
So, to build or not to build? We all know what happens when labor supply stays constant and demand goes up…