Another great year for area home buyers

It is the best of times, and the worst of times - if you asksuburban home builders.

Interest rates are at historic lows, but where are all thebuyers?

Because of the cut-throat competition for those buyers, thedeals on new homes have never been better. So while new-home salesin the area have been very good this year, builders believe recordsshould be set. They won't be. Why?"There is no pent-up demand," said Dan Star, Centex Homes. "Allthe people who needed a home have bought a home."Ed Havlik of United Homes sees it another way. "There's so muchto choose from right now," he said. "Buyers are taking longer tomake up their mind."In other words, there's no urgency to buy a house.And that's frustrating builders. "No builder that I am aware ofwill tell buyers `no, what you see is what you get'," said DavidCraft of Ryland Homes. Basically, he said, all builders have becomecustom builders. "Buyers are getting so much more than they havebefore."We've reacted to the market and have to be more flexible," hecontinued. "There was a day when you built it, and that was it. Nomore.""We can't afford to say no," added Patrick Beirne of PulteHomes. "When you have slower (buyer) traffic, you have to customizemore to get buyers. The builder has been forced to personalize thehome to get more traffic," he said.One response is the design center. "Virtually every largebuilder has one," Star said. "It sprung out of a need to satisfybuyers' greater needs. There are hundreds of selections," he said.Not that this has been a painful development for builders. Thedesign centers have become a nice profit opportunity. "Buyers arespending a lot more money in this stage (choosing products)," Starsaid. Often "$10,000, $15,000 to $20,000 are spent in upgrades.It's been a very significant trend in the last couple of years," hesaid.Yet there has been a buyer segment this year that has deliveredstrong housing sales - so much so that builders are rushing to designnew products. It's the empty nester.Builders are calling this the Del Webb effect. ThePhoenix-based builder's splashy and successful entry into Huntleywith its Sun City development turned heads among local builders.Sun City, a hot seller this fall, is competing with the area'sbest-selling development, Cambridge-at-Carillon in Plainfield,another empty-nester development. Both Sun City and Carillon areage-restricted developments. At least one spouse must be 55 years ofage or older to live there.The rush of builders into the empty-nest market don't want tobuild age-restricted developments."Carillon and Del Webb heightened awareness of the market," saidRyland's Craft. "Age restricted is not for everyone. There's a lotof market out there."Ryland is introducing ranch floor plans to target the emptynester, Craft said. At a new development in Antioch, Ryland willbuild only ranch plans with full basements.Havlik's United Homes also is experimenting. Many empty nesterswant 1-bedroom houses, he said, "with a large master bedroom and abig, open living area. And perhaps a small room for a craft orhobbies," he said. But the key to this 1-bedroom house is thebasement. "It's a finished lower level with guest space," he said."But we're just on the edge of what we'll see with aging babyboomers," he said.Like every consumer-goods provider, builders are adapting to themarket's needs. For home shoppers, the overriding message of 1998won't change next year: It's a great time to buy.