Good news for Texas home builders, the residential market throughout Texas, and particularly in Lubbock, have shown steady increase above the average rates. Coby Crump, the president of the Lubbock Realtors Association, says that “our real estate market is outstanding and continually strengthening.” He describes current conditions as a “seller’s market,” as “the demand for properties has depleted the amount of residential home supply below a six-month inventory of listings.”

The health of the Lubbock market is being attributed, in part, to more careful lending during the real estate boom. “Real estate lenders didn’t make many of the risky loans seen in other places, so foreclosure rates haven’t been at catastrophic levels,” said Ron Betenbough, vice president of Betenbough Homes.

"This is the future of the building business, especially in this area," said Douglas Smith of Environmental Construction. He's referring to modular construction, also referred to factory-built homes. According to the article, about three percent of homes in the United States are modular, but that rises to ten percent in the New York/New Jersey region. And, modular homes no longer look like double-wide trailers. One real estate agent said that when he shows a high-end modular home, clients aren't aware it was built in a factory.

Price savings are one reason why builders are turning to modular homes. Homes can be built for $75 to $80 a square foot, instead of $100 to $100 a square foot for homes built on site. Amber Sky Home Mortgage usually renovates existing homes, but the company has bought a lot where the home was destroyed in a fire. They hope to construct a 3,900-foot home on the space for about $300,000, instead of the $400,000 it would otherwise cost.

With the rise in residential construction, comes a rise in the costs of the materials to build those homes. In general, construction materials rose only 1.3 percent, according to an article in Finance & Commerce. However, some materials, including the all-important lumber, plywood, paint, and drywall, rose much more. Gypsum products rose 14 percent, while lumber, plywood, and paint, all exceeded 10 percent increases. Jeff Schoenwetter, of JMS Custom Homes, acknowledged that "the industry is passing those costs on to the consumer."

In part, the prices has risen because supplies tapered off when demand dropped. Now with more demand, manufacturers have to catch up. Ken Simonson, the chief economist of the Associated General Contractor of America noted that many gypsum plants and lumber mills shut down due to lack of demand.

Noting that "nearly every measure of housing strength — sales, prices and permits — are trending upward," Charlie Boyce, president fo the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri has every reason to be optimistic about home building in the area. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that December 2012 saw fifty-eight percent more home building permits issued than a year prior. Overall, home building in the region was up twenty-six percent.

Unfortunately, this was limited to the metropolitan area. Areas further out from the metropolitan area saw a decline in 2012.

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reports that MacDougal Construction has taken out forty-three permits for homes in the Overton Park development. Each of the homes is planned to be 1,262 square feet at a cost of $114,400. Other firms have also taken out permits to build homes in Lubbock, but in much smaller numbers.

The National Association of Home Builders has been tracking housing markets which have improved as the economy recovers. November saw the addition of twenty-two further markets, bringing the list of a total of 125 markets. In order to get on the list, the area has to show improvement in housing permits, employment, and house prices for at least six months. In November 2011, the list had only thirty entries.

Getting on the list is no guarantee of staying there. Six housing markets were dropped from the list. These areas are not limited to any part of the country, and include markets in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Texas, and California. Each of these states is represented multiple times on the list of improving markets.

“The solid increase in the number of improving housing markets this month illustrates the degree to which the housing recovery has gained momentum since we initiated the IMI last year,” said David Crowe, Chief Economist of the NAHB. Kurt Pfotenhauer, vice chairman of First American Title Insurance Company, said that “this new high point for the Improving Markets Index provides the latest evidence that housing has turned a corner due to rising demand from consumers who are increasingly confident about the direction of local home values.”

New home construction has jumped in southern Maine, near the city of Portland, while construction has remained stagnant in the rest of the state. Even with the increases, the number of building permits being issued is still lower than the recession began. Builders are not optimistic about 2013. “We’ve been running along the bottom for three years,” Mark Patterson of Patco Contruction, INc. told the Portland Press Herald. “Every year I’ve said it can’t get any worse. I don’t see a big increase next year.”

The growth in home starts may in part be fueled by a stronger economy in that section of the state. Cumberland and York Counties have unemployment rates of 5.6 and 5.8 percent, while the statewide average is 7.6 percent. Mr. Patterson noted that the strongest growth is nearest Route 95, which goes through Massachusetts and New Hampshire and then upwards through Maine.

An online poll of 668 readers responding to the question “Do you think southern Maine’s real estate market is starting to rebound” found them evenly split on the answer.

The town of Manteca, California has decided to forgive sewer development fees for homes that will be built and sold by June 2015. The recession lead to developers in San Joaquin County unable to get financing, since the fees of about $12,000 per home made new homes a losing prospect. Without new homes, the city wasn’t getting the fees anyway, and as Willie Weatherford, the mayor of Manteca, pointed out, “ten times the amount of fees we would never collect is nothing.” The agreements to pay for sewer improvements are due to lapse, and with the city deciding to forego them, the developers have no reason to further delay development. As a result of ending these agreements, Manteca has seen about 300 new homes built over the last three years.