Menomonee Falls Continues To See Increase In New Home Construction

The sound of construction work can readily be heard in Menomonee Falls because a number of new homes are being built.

And while the new construction housing market certainly is a far cry from the housing boom in 2004, construction industry insiders are seeing slow and steady growth. 

Matthew Carran, director of community development for Menomonee Falls, said the Village is seeing more new homes being constructed.

By the end of June, 33 single-family houses were built in 2013. In 2012, they had a total of 53 new homes built and in 2009 they had 24. However, in 2004 there were 174 homes built, which was the highest number of new homes constructed in the last 10 years.

The average construction costs to build the homes have also varied:  $285,000 in 2010, $373,000 in 2011, $314,000 in 2012 and $306,000 so far in 2013.

“There’s certainly a boom and a bust to the housing market, it’s a lot of work,” Carran said.

In Waukesha and a good chunk of Milwaukee counties, 595 new houses were started in the first half of 2013; a 30 percent increase from the 457 starts they had in the same time frame in 2012. But to put that in perspective, in 2004, the area had 2,988 housing starts, according to the Metropolitan Builders Association.

Builder Sees a 'Strong Comeback' This Year

Still, Jan Francki, executive vice president of Kaerek Builders, said their business is coming back "really strong" and they are seeing a surge in custom built, higher end homes selling between $300,000 and $600,000.

The reason: buyers have more confidence in their jobs, the ability to sell their existing homes and want to snag lower interest rates. But people are also borrowing for higher end homes, opting to purchase homes on the higher end of the loans they can qualify for, Francki said.

“People are not as conservative as they once were,” she said. “A few years ago, people were very conservative, but the buyers market has gone away. You also don’t have low-ball offers. When people were buying houses, people would be very dramatic in their offers and were dropping $25,000 to $50,000 off of the asking price. That’s just not happening anymore.”

Areas of high growth in Waukesha county include: Oconomowoc, Sussex, Pewaukee and Muskego, but Hartford and Johnson Creek are among the areas that have been slow to grow, Francki said.

Confidence Appears on the Rise

So why is the market getting better?

Kristine Hillmer, executive director of the Metropolitan Builders Association, said people have more confidence in their jobs and the market.

“We’ve had a significant drop from the hay day we had a few years ago and it’s going to take a while for that to fully recover, but we are seeing a lot more houses being built, and housing starts are going up significantly,” Hillmer said.

This slow and steady recovery is not as much of a problem as you might think.

“The trend is that we’re going to see slow growth. For our members, that is a good thing because it would be very difficult if they had a rapid gain,” she said.

There are several concerns they’ve had about the market, including a shortage of new lots in the Waukesha area, a shortage in people going into the carpentry trades, and fears about inflation with material supplies. And, a number of builders -- having downsized significantly -- have had a difficult time with finding the manpower to keep up with the work.

“The bottom line: if you are even remotely interested in building a new home and you can get financing, now is the time to do it,” she said.