Q: Housing construction seems to be picking up again after years of very low levels. What trends do you see in home construction for the next couple of years?
A: I think we’ve seen a much savvier consumer. When anything will sell, anything will be built. And that’s what we ran into, up till the housing bust. Now we’re seeing consumers who are asking for something different. If you look at Millennials, they’re not asking for their parents’ homes. They don’t want to live the way they grew up. That’s natural; most generations react against where they’ve come from. They have college debt. They want their house to be efficient. They want a home that makes sense and is livable and has proximity to the things you do in a day.
There is also a shift toward more urban and dense areas, especially in places where the formula already exists. You’re in an area where there’s precedent for that, and people like living like that.
©2013 The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)
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