If you watch and listen closely enough, the telltale signs of spring are here; The Final Four, the Masters, and Major League Baseball opening day. Finally, the weather appears to have released its grip on the winter months, and we can all look forward to another busy building season.
April brings with it a great opportunity for our building community to showcase homes during our Town and Country New Home and Specialty Retail Tour. The market continues to offer a shortage of homes available to buyers in our region. We have millennials choosing to stay home and entering the buying market, boomers who are downsizing or, “Right sizing” as I often call it. Fort Wayne has a downtown that is exploding with projects along the Riverfront and the Electric Works project is one that will be a catalyst for others. Our suburbs and small towns surrounding Fort Wayne have demands for homes. The Spring Town and Country Tour can be a tool for us to show off what we do, introduce a new community, a new floorplan, some new feature or way of building. Consumers in our region come to visit our homes to see what the latest trends are, get ideas, and see what is new. These are all great things, as new home buyers often take months or sometimes years before they decide to build. The National Association of Realtors continues to say markets will continue to see a shortage of existing homes for sale until home-building is able to catch up with demand. Let’s take our conversations to the next-level. New home construction offers so much to the consumer. Warranties, quality of construction, floorplans designed for how we live in 2019. I look forward to seeing what this show brings, and I wish all of you well.
The spring tour isn’t the only event I am excited about this month. Our GMM takes place this month as well. Our local association has partnered with our friends to the north, The Builders Association of Northeast Indiana. This has enabled us to be able to bring a talented speaker Lindsay Boccardo in for our GMM on April 18. I had the pleasure of hearing her speak in December, and I cannot encourage you enough to come listen to her. Associations from across the state have been reaching out to Lindsay to speak after she presented at IBA in December. Please reach out to Beth or Lyndsi to get signed up if you haven’t already.
Have a great month everyone, I look forward to seeing some of you at our GMM, and again I wish you all success at our spring home show.
Best regards,
Tyler Kees
HBA President