To: Our Valued Homebuyers, Homeowners, Partners, and Friends
As you may know, there are issues facing the construction industry this year that are unprecedented due to Covid-related causes. Robuck Homes is committed to keeping you informed about the challenges that all homebuilders are facing and how we as a company are working hard to take care of our customers. We hope you find the below information both helpful and comforting as we navigate through unforeseen territory together.
Why Are New Homes So Hard to Find?
Nationwide, the residential construction industry is experiencing critical shortages and delays of the materials necessary to build a new home. At the same time, the cost of many of these construction materials are at levels never seen before. Also, permitting and inspection departments within some cities that we build are overwhelmed due to staff shortages and increased demand for construction starts post-Covid. The critical shortages currently impact many facets of construction, most notably:
- Lumber
- Drywall
- Engineered wood products including I-joists, OSB, subfloor, and roof sheathing
- Steel Garage Doors
- Windows
- Roof Shingles
- PVC
- Insulation
- Electrical Wiring and Components
- Paint
- Appliances
How Did Residential Construction Get Here?
First, when COVID hit, most builders and material suppliers significantly slowed or shuttered their production capacity and new home starts in anticipation of COVID’s impact on the economy. Ultimately, COVID had virtually no effect on the demand for housing but it took several months for builders and suppliers to ramp capacities back up. In some cases, manufacturers are still not at their pre-COVID production levels.
Second, several weather events and natural disasters have affected material availability, particularly framing lumber, and engineered wood products. These events were the 2020 hurricanes in the Gulf region, the forest fires on the Pacific northwest, and the winter storms in the Gulf.
Finally, the current incredibly strong housing market is further straining an already tight supply chain. Even if these prior events had not occurred, the current pace of new home starts is 30% higher than the pre-COVID manufacturing capacity for many of these materials.
How is Robuck Homes Responding to the Current Market Conditions?
Robuck Homes is working non-stop to stay on top of a turbulent supply chain, instill protection measures for our homebuyers, and communicate in a timely and transparent manner.
While so many of the challenges and shortages we face today are beyond the control of Robuck Homes, we are working hard to mitigate them. Our membership in the Triangle and Cape Fear Builders Guilds has afforded us the ability to lock in material pricing for far longer than most builders. This has and will continue to result in more stable home prices in Robuck Homes Neighborhoods.
Where possible, we are ordering materials much earlier in the construction cycle to afford vendors as much time as possible. Although this removes the possibility of late-stage changes in our design process, it also promotes timely delivery so that we can maintain a smooth construction schedule.
On some occasions, the manufacturer, supplier, and some material specifications may have to be changed because trade partners have changed their product offerings due to product availability. While we do our best to circumvent these situations, we cannot always guarantee product availability at this time while continuing to push toward your expected completion date.
For our potential homebuyers who need to purchase a home already under construction we are trying to keep our available home inventories up. To ensure that our customers are not paying more than necessary, we are not pricing inventory homes until we have all our pricing locked in – usually sometime in the framing stage.
If you have purchased a Robuck Home to build, please know we understand and share your
frustrations during this challenging time. Thank you very much for continuing to remain flexible around the timing of your home’s construction design and closing. We are working diligently to build your home to our Robuck standards in as timely a manner as possible.
We are Family Owned & Operated Since 1926
All the homes we have built, communities we have served and families we have helped over the past ninety years are testaments to what we believe in. Robuck Homes was built on the foundation of building the best homes possible while treating everyone with respect. Robuck is locally owned, so we take care of you on a more personal basis, and in this way, the Robuck Homes legacy will be preserved for future generations We understand buying a home is a major investment and that is why, when you purchase a Robuck home, you are treated as extended family.
