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While homeowners displaced by Hurricane Florence may have a tougher time finding temporary housing during the rebuild process, local home builders are anticipating a return to sales growth for the rest of this year.
Peter Martin, a JMP Securities analyst researching sales ramifications for builders in the Carolinas after Hurricane Florence writes, "After 3-6 weeks of sales disruption due to clean-up and electricity and infrastructure restoration, sales should return to positive year-over-year levels by year end,” adding, “Given enhanced building codes for new homes, we expect most damage to occur to legacy existing homes, which should create improved long-term demand for housing,” MarketWatch reports.
That’s what happened last year in Texas and Florida after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Martin said. Notably, real estate agents in Houston have observed buyer reluctance to tour existing homes in Houston, for fear that the properties may have suffered some hurricane damage that’s not immediately visible, according to a survey of real estate agents conducted by Credit Suisse. The builders most exposed to the areas impacted by Florence include Beazer Homes Inc., Meritage Homes Corp., D.R. Horton, Inc., and NVR Inc., Martin said. Beazer shares have lost nearly 40 percent in the year to date, among the worst of the big-builder stock performance, while NVR’s stock is down about 25 percent.
