Home building hits record 4,000 mark
A robust development pace combines with demand for higher-end homes to bring a home value total that surprises even the county's development director.
By DAN DeWITT, Times Staff Writer
Published December 25, 2005

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BROOKSVILLE - It's hard to imagine anyone with a closer view of the ongoing building boom in Hernando County than Grant Tolbert, director of the county's Development Department.

His plan examiners have had to work overtime to cope with the crush of permit applications; inspectors have strained to meet thousands of requests to check out roofs, frames and concrete slabs.

But even Tolbert was stunned to see the county pass a new milestone last week, issuing the year's 4,000th permit for a single-family home.

"When I saw the numbers, I was shocked," Tolbert said.

His reaction is based on historical perspective.

The previous record came in 1987, when Hernando County was one of the fastest-growing areas in the state and it issued 2,787 single-family permits.

That frantic pace of development was followed by a relative lull in the 1990s that ended with the completion of the Suncoast Parkway in 2001; the year before that, the county issued only 1,148 permits.

When the number climbed back up to 2,787, in 2004, it was seen as evidence of a remarkably robust housing market.

"In 2003, everyone was happy to have such a vibrant market," said Gary Schraut, a Brooksville real estate broker.

"I don't think too many people expected what followed the next year. And then 2005 was just unbelievable. It was the greatest real estate market anyone has ever seen, and I think that's an understatement."

Rising even faster than the number of homes is their value.

The estimated worth of the new houses permitted in 1987 was $119-million, compared to $712-million for 4,013 houses this year, according to development department statistics.

That is partly due to skyrocketing home prices, said Robert Buckner, a Brooksville real estate broker; another factor, though, is that more of the builders and developers working in Hernando are seeking the high end of the market.

"I would say that the average newcomer's salary and/or annual income is higher, even taking into account inflation, than in 1987," said Buckner, who began working in Hernando that year.

Another noticeable change, he said, is that Hernando now attracts fewer true snowbirds than it once did.

"I think there are more folks transferring from Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco (counties) now versus the 1980s, when it was predominantly folks from the northern part of the country."

Some signs show a slowing housing market; other indicators, however, suggest that the rapid pace of new construction will continue through 2006.

"From what I'm hearing from the builders, they're not expecting any major slowdown in 2006, though probably not a continued increase like we had this year," Tolbert said.

One factor that may indicate a declining market for new homes, real estate agents have said, is the cooling market for existing ones. The inventory of unsold homes in the county dipped below 1,000 when market activity peaked in the middle of the summer. That number has risen steadily - a sign of slowing sales - to about 2,300, according to the Hernando County Association of Realtors.

Brokers have also noticed a flattening of prices for new homes and lots.

"I don't think you're going to see a home appreciate in value 20 percent from January to July (as many properties did in 2005)," Schraut said.

But applications for permits for new houses have continued to pour into the development office, Tolbert said. Buckner and others said the number of national and statewide builders - and their well-funded marketing departments - will encourage continued strong new-home sales.

In the 1990s, only one large, national builder - US Home (now part of Lennar Corp.) - was selling a subdivision in Hernando County, Timber Pines. Not coincidentally, Schraut said, Timber Pines was the only development that saw steady growth through the leanest years.

Now a long list of prominent developers and builders are at work in Hernando, including LandMar Group LLC, a subsidiary of Duke Energy; Levitt and Sons; Avatar Homes; Pulte Homes, and Kitson and Partners LLC, which recently negotiated the largest purchase of environmentally sensitive lands in the state. Kitson now has a contract to develop land around the World Woods Golf Club in northern Hernando County.

LandMar and Levitt, especially, are expected to bring dramatic change to Brooksville's market. The number of permits for single-family homes in the city was below 50 for 2005. With LandMar marketing 999 lots in its Southern Hills Plantation development, and Levitt with nearly that number in the nearby Cascades development, that number is expected to increase rapidly next year and even faster the year after that.

Bill Geiger, the city's community development director, said the sales will contrast sharply from some recent years, when 10 or fewer homes have been built in the city.

"We've already seen some increase in monthly activity, but it hasn't hit in full force yet," Geiger said.

Though the marketing and sales techniques are different now, today's booming market reminds Schraut of the stories from the 1970s, when the owners of the Deltona Corp. sold lots by the hundreds in Spring Hill to groups it flew down from northern cities.

"We're getting national exposure like we haven't gotten since the Mackle brothers were selling houses to people in New York and Detroit," Schraut said.