Dive Brief:
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Builders have 218,000 homes finished—or close to it—and ready to sell, indicating their confidence that the spring selling season will be profitable, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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That’s 17.2% more homes than they had on the market a year ago, according to data the Commerce Department released on Tuesday. The largest U.S. builder, D.R. Horton, reported this week that it has 4,500 spec homes ready for sale, almost a quarter more than it had a year earlier, The Journal noted.
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The “builders’ hunch about a strong spring” was buoyed by strong home sales in December, which reached their highest level since 2008, The Journal reported.
Dive Insight:
The inventory of speculative homes, while heftier than a year ago, is still lower than pre-recession norms and is considered “tight,” according to The Journal article, which said several big builders, including KB Home and Lennar, are increasing the number of spec homes they build per community in anticipation of a healthy selling season.
The Super Bowl typically kicks off the spring selling season, which hits its stride in the months that follow.