From our friend NYUGrad………..Must watch………..
Pay close attention to the ‘Cost Model’ conversation and Certificate of occupancy. I myself was about to buy a semi custom home in 2020 before the Covid lockdown. Then Covid hit and everyone left the cities. Homes I was originally looking to buy went from 1.3m all in to 2.5m all in over the course of 8 months!
New Builders are able to legally hide inventory and not list almost ready homes from MLS. So if you go visit track home sites across America like Melody has, like I have as a buyer, you will then see for yourself how much inventory is almost built but nowhere to be found on MLS or Zillow or Realtor.com or Redfin etc.
Melody is rightfully pointing out that builders can have thousands of homes almost ready for move in, but if they decide not to list them (because they know not enough demand) then those homes can be valued within their own builders “Cost modeling” vs true market prices.
And if you do not have a Certificate of Occupancy, as a builder you do not need to account that home as sold.
Yet on the front end, builders top line can be papered over by something as early as a application or intent to buy, which can be cancelled by the buyer later.
