Builder shortage, etc.

Posted on January 14, 2006 by Jim Duncan

A builder shortage?

We are hearing from economic developers and employers reporting that they have more jobs than people. The availability of affordable housing to attract manufacturing workers is starting to become an issue. The housing that is being built is too expensive for the market, but these communities can not attract developers to build what is needed.

Where’s the problem? The demand for home builders far exceeds the supply. (Emphasis added.) Contractors can not recruit and hire enough skilled tradespeople to do the carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and other construction work that is involved in building houses. Because of building needs in the storm-damaged gulf region and in burgeoning China, construction materials are in short supply. Source.

Eminent Domain’s threat to small business.

Gas prices to rise in 2006? Thanks to an unlikely source – environmentalists.

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About Jim Duncan

A Charlottesville Realtor who tries to stay on the bleeding/cutting/functional edge of technology and real estate trends. I have been selling real estate for the past 10 years, lived in C'Ville for twenty+ and am married to one of few Charlottesville natives left.
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  • Ray Hyde

    Environmentalists love high fuel prices and congestion. They believe the combined costs will cause us to make better environmental choices about our living situation. They believe we can save billions in highway and fuel costs and preserve the environment by moving to cubicles in Transit Oriented Development or pedestrian friendly, highly accessible and vibrant, but high crime New Urbanist Communities.

    They dont realize that the fuel “saved” will be used by others anyway and the manpower multiplying effect it provides will be used against us. They don’t realize that those who move to more urban environments will be living in dirty, noisy, highly energy dependent surroundings that depend entirely on the surrounding green ifrastructure for sustenance and garbage disposal. They don’t see that the residents will want to escape (by highway) every weekend to glimpse the critically important prime farmland that is privately held in tax exempt conservation easements by the new landed gentry.

    And you think environmentalists are an unlikely source for causes of high fuel and home prices? Where have you been?

    Full disclosure: Mr Hyde is trained as an environmental chemist and economist and spent many years in the field studying the means and costs of cleaning hazardous waste areas.

  • TrvlnMn

    With regards to your link on Eminent Domain, I’d like to bring to your attention this from CvilleIndymedia.org

    Link: http://cvilleindymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=1750

    Apparently the city of Charlottesville is quietly trying to expand their powers of Eminent Domain.

  • http://www.jduncanrealestate.com Jim

    Ah. Their site is down right now, but I briefly saw that the story the other day; certainly something that I want to read and learn more about. It didn’t seem like a positive thing.