Dive Brief:
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While housing starts and sales ebbed and flowed during the year that just ended, they remained absolutely steady in Waseca, MN, which issued zero single-family homebuilding permits in 2014.
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The reason, local builders said: Nobody’s interested in buying new homes. One house, whose permit was issued in 2013, was built there last year. It was a custom home.
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Waseca issued seven permits for residential housing over the past five years, far lower than any of the surrounding communities.
Dive Insight:
Officials speculated that those who buy homes opt for previously owned dwellings instead of new abodes because they assume it is less expensive to buy an existing house. Neighboring communities attract more buyers because more jobs are located there, they said.