Thursday, April 30, 2015

Deer Park Opens in Bedico Creek as New Home Sales Rise

GardeniaNew home builder Alvarez Construction Company has joined the group of builders at Bedico Creek Preserve in St. Tammany Parish.  As a new home community builder, Alvarez Construction is proud to introduce new homes for sale in Deer Park, Bedico Creek’s newest new home Neighborhood.  Deer Park is located just down Audubon Parkway from our almost sold out neighborhood of Longview and just down the street from Cypress Crossing.  Similar to Deer Park, Cypress Crossing is a new home neighborhood located within the master planned community of Bedico Creek which features 3 exclusive builders.  Since its opening to the public in the spring of 2014, many homes for sale have been built, and 4 of these new homes are currently under contract.

Bedico Creek’s new home sales have reflected national trends in both our new homes for sale and resale homes available.  The National Association of Home Builder reported that new homes sales rose 7.8% in February, 2015 which is the highest reported sales pace increase in 7 years (February, 2008).

“Today’s numbers are a great start to the spring buying season,” said Tom Woods, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo. “Hopefully, this is an indicator of how the rest of the year will fare.”

Deer Park opens in Bedico Creek as new home sales rise nationally, and move-up home buyers in St. Tammany Parish will have an affordable option to purchase a new home for sale.  Deer Park has one exclusive builder – Alvarez Construction – and features new homes ranging in price from the $230’s – $250’s.  The open floorplans available will range in size from 1,600 – 1,949 square feet and will feature 3 and 4 bedroom layouts.  3 new homes in Deer Park are available for sale now.  To buy a new home or build on a new lot for sale in Deer Creek, Contact Jose Amaya at 985-237-9189 or visit our community and the Deer Park on-site sales office which is open daily from 1pm – 5pm and by appointment for other hours.

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Friday, April 24, 2015

Town of Madisonville – Home to Many St. Tammany Parish Activities

Location, location, location; that is the buzzword when making the decision to enter into a new home sales investment.  Bedico Creek Preserve is located just over 7 miles from the town of Madisonville – home to many St. Tammany Parish activities right on the Tchefuncte River and Lake Pontchartrain.  For its size of just over 780 documented residents according to information from the 2010 Census, Madisonville, Louisiana offers a suprising number of annual festivals, art shows, and other entertainment events to its residents.  For the “town proper” of Madisonville inhabiting such a small
physical area in St. Tammany Parish, the amount of planned and advertised activities is actually a pretty substantial list.  Homeowners and home buyers of Bedico Creek Preserve can experience the rich Louisiana culture of the Greater New Orleans area just a short drive from our master planned, conservation community outside the town limits of Madisonville.

Madisonville is packed with many different restaurants and bars, some right on the Tchefuncte River, that serve fresh Gulf and Lake Pontchartrain seafood.  On many weekends, our residents can listen to live music, enjoy Cajun cuisine, and find something to do either on the lake or the river during the warm spring and summer months.  On March 7th, the Madisonville Garden Club will celebrate spring with its annual Garden Show which will be set up on the riverfront and town hall lawn from 9am – 3pm.  Food vendors and landscape / plant vendors will be selling their wares and displaying a variety of stunning plant and flower arrangements.  In addition to shrubs, flowers, fruit trees, bushes, and house plants for sale, there will be outdoor specialty items for sale such as cypress furniture, pine straw, and bird houses.   The Garden Show will raffle off several goodie baskets to the tune of $1 / raffle ticket and $6 for 5 tickets.

If homeowners at Bedico Creek are interested in being part of the largest jam session in St. Tammany Parish, the town of Madisovnille will be holding its annual Acoustic Riverfront Jam which is free and open to the public to sit on the riverfront and enjoy live music.  Registration for the jam will begin on Saturday, April 25th at 10am.  This “open mic” environment features bluegrass, country, gospel, and oldies music with musicians of every age, location, and genre participating.  The musicians will receive a ticket for a potluck lunch during the event.

Living so close to the town of Madisonville is just one of the perks of buying a home or lot in our master planned community.  You can also enjoy our amenities such as 500 acres of pristine wilderness which has designated hiking and biking trails, several small lakes and ponds for fishing and boating, a swimming pool, a disc golf course, and a pavilion perfect for entertaining.  For More Information about Bedico Creek, Contact Us at 985-845-4200 or e-mail Info@LiveBedico.com.

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Thursday, April 16, 2015

New Home Buyers Increase Demand for Energy Efficiency Features

2-133-st-calais-place-exterior-front-2From the way that the house is placed on its lot to the light bulbs used in the custom lighting package, home buyers have become very sensitive to the use of energy efficient home building techniques, and many local St. Tammany Parish builders have stepped up to the challenge.  The footprint of a house on a lot determines how the sunlight will affect all rooms of the home which not only helps with heating and cooling but also maximizes the offering of natural lighting which can reduce the consumption of electricity used to light your home.  Therefore, builders now carefully review floorplans for lot placement when they are trying to offer the most energy efficient structure possible.

156-st-calais-place-master-bath-1Home buyers also express interest in many different green building techniques which included spray foam insulation to “envelope” the house, sealing out air and moisture but still allowing the house to “breath” to expel any humidity which could get trapped in the walls.  They also preferred now triple pane, low E windows – some even with a glaze – to block out light in rooms that would tend to heat up.  In townhomes and condos, buyers considered planting rooftop gardens to encourage the absorption of moisture for plants and reducing the amount of heat that a traditional shingle roof would absorb in the hot southern months.

Regarding electrical fixtures inside the homes, new home buyers, especially Millenials who are now entering the home buying market because of improving employment and economic conditions, prefer all of their appliances to be Energy Star rated appliances.  It is now pretty much standard for builders to install electronic, programmable thermostats to control the heating and cooling of homes to match the homeowner’s life schedule.

New home buyers who are able to completely customize their home buying experience may also be dedicated to a complete green building experience from the ground up.  Structural foundational parts of a totally green home could include ground source heat pumps, solar energy for both electricity as well as hot water heaters, displacement ventilation, and water conservation through the use of underground irrigation tanks or insulated rain barrels for outdoor watering needs.

In many markets new home buyers increase demand for energy efficiency features, and new home builders are stepping up to the challenge of offering buyers the benefit of green building techniques.  They are providing a way to reduce utility bills and offer a more quality-built new home, sealed from the elements that could last much longer than new homes built even 20 years ago.

Ron Lee Homes is currently building new homes for sale at Bedico Creek Preserve, and Ron Lee has held the National Association of Home Builders’ designation of Certified Green Professional since 2009.  For More Information on homes for sale, Contact Us at 985-845-4200 or E-mail Info@LiveBedico.com.

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Friday, April 10, 2015

Economic Recovery and Home Building Employment Go Hand-in-Hand

As if anyone in the home building industry needed any further proof, February’s employment numbers for the home building / remodeling industries comes in at 2.436 million with 688,000 being builders and the other 1.748 million specialty trade contractors.  Counting contractors and subs is very important because most of the work done in residential and commercial construction is done by
contractors and sub-contractors.

It is very evident that economic recovery and home building employment go hand-in-hand because in the month of February alone, the real estate market added 16,700 jobs bringing the number of people employed by the construction industry to 168,000 jobs in the last 12 months.  The average number of jobs added per  month over the last 6 months has been approximately 15,000 jobs per month, and the total amount of construction jobs for both residential builders and remodelers has been 449,700 positions since the low point of the Great Recession.

Overall, according to a new study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), 3.5 million people worked in residential construction during the year of 2013.  These numbers include self-employed workers who are typically subs.  The numbers do not include the ripple effect that is created by the construction industry for those businesses which are associated with the residential home building process.  These side industries can include decorators, landscapers, alarm installation
companies, electronics / surround / home theater companies, building materials supplies, custom cabinetry / built-ins / closet companies, etc.  Just considering the “bare bones” impact of the home building industry on the employment numbers in the United States in 2013, residential construction employment made up 2.4% of the employed civilian labor force.  California came in first with the most employees of residential construction, and Florida came in second.

The impact of both commercial and residential construction employment is something that the NAHB watches closely.  They monitor turnover rates, employment rates, layoff rates, and job quits, and sector hiring to try to advise Congress on the impacts of regulations that are imposed by legislation both nationally and at a state level.  Employment numbers will need to rise from 3.5 million to 5 million in residential construction and from 8.9 million to 11 million in overall construction in order to be considered “back to normal” in today’s housing market.

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