Phoenix and Atlanta Will Be Best New-Home Markets in U.S., Barclays Says

Phoenix, where foreclosures have surged and prices plummeted since the U.S. housing bubble burst, and Atlanta are the best potential markets for the sale of newly built homes, Barclays Capital said in a report today. Atlanta has the potential for 47,317 new houses a year, followed by Phoenix with 46,485 and Dallas with 33,997, Jeff Meli, Vincent Foley, Cedric Morris and Robert Tayon, analysts with Barclays, wrote in the study. Phoenix leads 16 metro areas examined for potential revenue with $4.45 billion in new home sales. It’s followed by Washington with $3.94 billion and San Diego with $3.31 billion. “The reality is that housing is a region-by-region story,” Foley said in a telephone interview from New York. “And most of the big public homebuilders are reasonably positioned to benefit from an upturn because they’re in the right markets.” The projection for revived home construction in Phoenix, which the Barclays analysts called “surprising,” is based on the city’s growing population and speedy absorption of distressed real estate, according to the report. Barclays gave no time frame for its sales forecasts, which will occur after the cities “clear themselves of distressed inventory and excess supply,” it said. “Regions that have pushed foreclosures through the pipeline quickly should see demand for new homes earlier than those that have allowed their backlog to grow,” Meli, Foley, Morris and Tayon wrote.

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