HOUSTON—Following Harvey, the concern for human life was a primary focus, followed by assessing the condition of commercial and residential buildings. It quickly became clear that commercial structures fared better than residential housing in much of the metro. Will Holder, president of Trendmaker Homes recently discussed the wrap-up for 2017, the forecast for 2018 and how the housing market has fared after Harvey in this exclusive.

GlobeSt.com: What major events shaped housing in Texas in 2017?

Holder: The number one event that affected the Texas housing market was the oil and gas industry, turning the corner on what is considered the biggest petroleum industry bust in the history of the industry. There were as many as 80,000 direct oil company job losses leading up to 2017's recovery, which really wasn't a recovery, just an end to the job losses and a slight renewal of the hiring. In simpler words, the bleeding stopped.

GlobeSt.com: What major events are expected to shape housing in Texas in 2018?

Holder: There will be resumed hiring and buyers will return to market for new homes. Traffic in the builders' sales offices are up substantially in the months leading up to 2018 and there is optimism that 2018 will be a good year for builders and homesellers. The effects of Hurricane Harvey have not played out in the marketplace yet and how it has changed the dynamics in the market are not yet clear.

GlobeSt.com: How is Trendmaker Homes handling the rebuilding after Hurricane Harvey?

Holder: Like most other builders, our active communities didn't suffer significant damage from the storms and were back open for business shortly after the storm subsided. It's still too early to understand the ultimate impact of the hurricane on the Houston economy, but we think the near-term impact for us is approximately 30 deliveries being pushed from 2017 to 2018.

Trendmaker Homes has been working to provide all affected homeowners and Trendmaker employees support in any way available to us. We have created a mechanism to provide homeowners and their contractors access to whatever information they need about their home, floor plans or selections to get them promptly on the path to recovery. Additionally, our employees raised money internally and our parent company, TRI Pointe Group, matched those funds with the establishment of the Trendmaker Hurricane Harvey Assistance Fund. This money will be used to help put our employees and other impacted homeowners on the path to recovery. TRI Pointe Group also donated $200,000 to the American Red Cross Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. We remain committed to helping our team members, the people of Houston and the surrounding communities as they continue to recover from this event.

GlobeSt.com: What can you tell us about Texas buyer demographics, including Millennials and Baby Boomers?

Holder: According to the Kinder Institute for Urban Research and the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas, Houston is the most diverse US metropolitan area and that evolving demographic continues statewide. We have a diverse demographic of buyers, from here in Texas, across the country and the world, with styles and characteristics of new Texas homes reflecting those diverse tastes and needs. Baby Boomers are still a big piece of our new home market and Trendmaker has an active program of homes designed to meet the needs of smaller evolving families. Millennials are just starting to influence new home designs, but in reality, their tastes are not much different from their parents. They've been slow to the table, but once they have children, they want the same big yard and big home that the previous generations bought.

GlobeSt.com: What are you doing to address labor and material costs?

Holder: Like most builders, we continue to experience challenges related to labor and material cost pressures. We are constantly looking for new and innovative contractors who are finding better and more efficient means of building homes.

GlobeSt.com: What major events shaped housing in Texas in 2017?

GlobeSt.com: What major events are expected to shape housing in Texas in 2018?

GlobeSt.com: How is Trendmaker Homes handling the rebuilding after Hurricane Harvey?

GlobeSt.com: What can you tell us about Texas buyer demographics, including Millennials and Baby Boomers?

GlobeSt.com: What are you doing to address labor and material costs?

Instant Insights /

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