Steve Fritz Shares His Thoughts on the Housing Market at VCU Kornblau Real Estate Program Spring Housing Forum

Steve Fritz, Chief Operating Officer at HHHunt, shared his thoughts on the Richmond housing market at the VCU Kornblau real estate program’s Spring housing forum. Steve was joined on the panel by Lisa Sturtevant, Chief Economist for the Virginia Association of Realtors, Jovan Burton, Executive Director of the Partnership for Housing Affordability, Susan Dewey, Chief Executive Officer of Virginia Housing, and Laura Lafayette, Chief Executive Officer of the Richmond Association of Realtors. This group addressed rising home and rental costs, the hot real estate market and the complexities of new home construction during this time.

Steve's key takeaways included:

“There has been a domino effect as it relates to building new home inventory. Demand for new homes increased dramatically over the past several years while the industry as whole was underbuilding. Then COVID hit, and the lockdowns started. Once that happened, most builders were holding their breath because they remembered the ’07, ’08, and ’09 recession. However, the opposite of what we expected happened – new homebuyer demand increased.”

“Due to that demand, home builders started burning through lots. In other words, we were burning through our future. At HHHunt, we are fortunate that as a value add we are also a developer. Where we once used to hold around 50 percent of our new home lots, we are now holding upwards of 80 percent in the future.”

“To fix home builder constraints, we need to see supply chain and labor stabilization. We also need to be advocates for more zoning and entitlement flexibility.”  

You can read more on this engaging conversation here.