Building Activity Up

OK, I have been remiss in updating this blog. However, we have been busy pricing out houses. The news is saying that we are at the bottom of the recession, and that things should start improving. This is confirmed by the building industry for Austin. We have seen more interest in the past month than we saw the first three months of the year combined. Our subcontractors are seeing the same thing. They are bidding more work, so it is taking longer for me to get quotes back. We are seeing a decline in the great deals, especially for labor, from subs who were bidding work just to keep their crews busy. Many have downsized, and some have gone out of business. So there is more work coming up, with fewer subs. It looks like prices will remain lower for a little while, especially for materials, but there will be an upward pressure as things improve. An architect confirmed this in an e-mail today, saying they were seeing things slowly pick up, and while prices are lower, they are seeing some increases also. For those of you wanting to start building at the bottom of the cycle, it looks like it may have already happened.