By SHANNON BEHNKEN, The Tampa Tribune
Published: February 23, 2008
TAMPA ? With more than 30,000 pre-owned homes on the market in the Tampa Bay area, builders of new homes face fierce competition for buyers.
Now builders have a new competitor: themselves.
As builders try to unload finished inventory or secure sales contracts to build new ones, they increasingly are competing against homes they recently sold but have come back on the market as resales, either from people seeking to avoid foreclosure or from banks that have seized properties.
Indeed, the number of fairly new homes taken back by lenders in foreclosure is rising in the Bay area.
This all represents a difficult marketing challenge for builders because lenders, anxious to rid their books of foreclosure homes, tend to slash prices significantly lower than what it costs builders to construct a similar home, said Jack McCabe, of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach.
“This renders builders uncompetitive,” McCabe said.
“If you can buy a new home from a developer for $300,000, or a year-old foreclosure home just like it for $200,000, it’s a no-brainer. Especially when it’s in the same neighborhood.”
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