2005 Was A Record Year For Arizona Builders

The Arizona Republic reports that through October, the number of new home permits issued were running 5 percent ahead of last year's record of 60,872 permits.

Demand exceeded supply all year, causing builders to hold lotteries. While that has slowed down in the last few months, home builders are not planning for drastic changes in demand.

Carl Mulac, President of Engle Homes, says "if 2005 was white hot, maybe we'll cool off to red hot in 2006." "What your seeing is a very good housing market combined with the nation's largest builders expanding their market share," said James Zeumer, a spokesman for Pulte Homes, which through nine months in 2005 reported $9.3 billion in revenues, a 31 percent increase over the same period last year.

Local housing analyst R.L. Brown says he wouldn't be very surprised if every top home builder did not have a record year in both sales volume and profitability. More...