REAL ESTATE, HOME BUILDING MOUNT RECOVERY

The real-estate and home-building industries are mounting an impressive recovery in Cape Girardeau.

Favorable financing conditions have pushed the housing affordability index to its highest level in more than 15 years, and people are responding, say realtors in Cape Girardeau.

"One of the things that has really helped home sales is that financing has kind of bottomed out," said Carl Blanchard of Coldwell Banker Blanchard and Associates Realty. "People are making a decision to buy.

"Declining rates really don't help us that much," Blanchard said. "Buyers will wait to see just how low the rates will go."

Blanchard, headquartered at 320 N. Kingshighway with a branch facility at Jackson, said his sales volume had more than doubled over the same period a year ago.

Things were slow in residential sales and construction during the first quarter of 1991.

"It wasn't until March that things started picking up last year," said Blanchard. "We had the earthquake scare during the final quarter of 1990, then the Middle East war crisis the first quarter of 1991, but you could see the pickup start by April of 1991."

"Business has continued to pick up," said Herb Annis of Ashland Realty Co., 2424 Kingsway Drive. "With attractive interest rates, a lot of people are looking at homes. Things are looking good right now.

"We're seeing a lot of movement in new homes," said Annis. "All of the inventory we had in two of our subdivisions, Greenwood and Ashland Hills, has sold, and we have started construction on several new homes."

Thomas L. Meyer of Thomas L. Meyer Real Estate and Insurance, 230 N. Sprigg, agreed that "things are looking up."

"Volume during the first quarter of 1992 is up substantially over the previous year," said Meyer. "This time a year ago we usually had two or three closings in the mill. Now we're running eight or nine. Our dollar volume is up by more than 20 percent."

Meyer said there is a lot of activity in commercial and industrial buildings too. "We're getting a lot of inquiries concerning future industrial expansions," he said.

Meyer credits good interest rates for the increased activity.

"Financing is reasonable and available to qualified buyers," he said. "People are a lot more positive than during the past two years."

Barbara Baker of Town and Country Realty, 1558 Independence, said, "Things are looking great and we hope it continues."

That home building in Cape Girardeau has mounted a recovery can be born out by figures obtained from the city building permits office for single-family dwelling.

Cape Girardeau had a healthy increase in home building the first four months of 1992.

Only 13 permits were issued during the first quarter January, February and March of 1991, but during the same period in 1992, 21 permits were issued in the amount of $2,154,000, for an average of $102,000 per home.

The new-home situation looks even better when April figures are tallied. A total of nine permits were issued in April, good for a combined total of $1,224,000, or an average of $136,000 per home.

Commercial construction and remodeling, which accounted for more than $17.8 million in 1991, continues to be good. During the first four months of 1991, permits have been issued for more than $11 million, highlighted by a $7.2 million permit for the Health Services Corporation of America (HSCA) for an office and professional complex on Mount Auburn Road.

The National Association of Realtors' housing affordability index, which measures the ability of a family earning the median income to purchase a median-priced resale home, is just above 120 this month. Earlier in the year it was 124, highest since 128.7 in May 1974.

The index shows that a family earning the national median income of $36,742 had 125 percent of the income needed to qualify for conventional financing covering 80 percent of a home priced at $102,300, the national median existing home price for that month.

"The affordability index has been good since December," said a spokesman with the realtors association. "But consumers were still getting over the economic jitters until only recently. We think consumer confidence will continue to improve and that home sales undoubtedly will pick up."

The median price of a home in the Cape Girardeau area is about $56,000 to $58,000 (median meaning half of the homes cost more and half less).

The local median is low compared to most of the nation; the median price of a home nationally in April was $103,000.

In 1991, only 72 permits were issued for new houses at a cost of $8 million (average $112,000). In 1990, permits were issued for 82 new homes at cost of $6.1 million, or an average of $71,000.

Home prices in the Midwest and South are usually among the best in the nation.

During a recent Home Price Comparison Index survey conducted by Coldwell Banker Residential Group of Mission Viejo, Calif., home sales prices were compared in 21 markets.

According to the survey, a 2,200-square-foot home can be purchased in the U.S. for as little as $75,750 in Oklahoma City, or as much as $1,184,167 in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The typical home in the survey is a single-family dwelling with four bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, family room or equivalent, and a two-car garage.

The home cost was under $100,000 in nine markets, including Fort Smith, Ark., San Antonio, Texas, Kansas City, Kan., and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

The index also lists nine markets in the over-$500,000 range for the same home, including Greenwich, Conn., and seven cities in California. The least expensive homes within any specific region was in the South, where it ranged from $95,000 to $168,000. The southern states included North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama.

The median price of the 2,200-square-foot home in the survey was $198,007, with prices ranging form a low of $73,612 in Winnipeg to a high of $1.1 million in Beverly Hills.