Builders optimistic about market

By: Holly Kramer, Staff Writer

In the market for a new house, Judy and Gary Nagel, Overland Park, talk to ReMax sales associate Heather Broderick, Leawood, during the Spring Tour of Homes on Saturday. The house at 2846 W. 137th Terrace is in Villas of Highlands Ranch subdivision in Leawood.

Johnson County builders are hopeful that this year’s Spring Homes Tour, beginning last weekend and running for three weeks, could be a tipping point that will turn things around for the residential building industry.

 Bob Morrissey, of Arch Design Builders, LLC, said the tour has been successful so far.

“I think the best day so far was Sunday when we had about 200 couples come through the Lakewood development to look at homes,” Morrissey said. “It seems to have really picked up. More importantly, the people who looked are buyers and they want to buy now.

“I think people have been brainwashed into thinking that the housing market is worse than it is. Kansas City is really not in that bad of shape.”

Morrissey builds houses in Mission Reserve, 151st Street and Mission Road; Woodland Reserve, 88th Street and Woodland Road; and in Lee’s Summit, Mo.

“It’s a buyer’s market,” Morrissey said. “People are starting to figure out that it is a good time to buy.”

SPRING HOMES TOUR

There are 326 homes in Johnson County on the tour, which runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day through May 18. Prices range from $100,000 to $2.3 million. For more information, go to www.kcspringhomestour.com.