Berks County real estate and economic development experts
are optimistic about the region's residential and industrial market growth in
2016 and expect it to continue next year, according to experts who spoke at the
second annual Berks County Real Estate & Development symposium held at the
DoubleTree by Hilton Reading.
The optimism is being driven by a confluence of factors,
including an improved economy, low inflation and interest rates at historic
lows that lessens the cost to borrow money for housing, said James D. King,
chief investment officer, BB&T Investment Advisors and senior vice
president, BB&T Retirement & Institutional Service.
Residential housing sales in Berks are projected to
increase 12 percent by the end of the year, bringing it to a total of 5,015
homes sold, compared to 4,476 sold in 2015, according to Dave Mattes, Realtor,
the Dave Mattes Group and RE/MAX of Reading.
“We were really rocking and rolling” some months, Mattes
said.
Home are selling faster and at higher prices compared to
last year. Sales price averages are up 5 percent, with an average sales price
through October of $172,851.
Mattes projected home sales to increase by 3 to 4 percent
in 2017 with an average sales price of $178,900, also up 3 to 4 percent.
New construction is down, with only 191 homes built, a
level last seen in 2010, and a far cry from the 1,185 homes built in 2002.
Mattes expected new construction and lot sales to increase in 2017.
Pamela Shupp, president and CEO of the Greater Reading
Economic Partnership, said 650 acres and 9.2 million square feet of space are
expected to become available in the Berks marketplace in the next three years.
GREP is focusing on helping companies already in the
region meet their expansion needs. It is also pursuing another strategy of
reaching out to communities and school districts to see if they want
development and then urging them to expedite development plans through the
approval process.
Berks County has 70,000 acres in agricultural
preservation.
“That is by choice and it is a quality of life issue,”
Shupp said. “But it makes it difficult to provide opportunities to companies.”
While much development is occurring along the Interstate
78 corridor, “we need to provide opportunities elsewhere,” she said.
Many companies that want to expand also don’t won’t to
have to relocate across the county, she said.
While “location, location, location” is important, Shupp
said, “so is workforce, workforce, workforce.”
Shupp said Berks County is a key East Coast location and
is ideally situated as part of the western portion of the Lehigh Valley and the
southeastern and southcentral parts of the state.
She said half of the industrial site visits made this
past year were from foreign companies.
Source: LVB
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