A May 30, 2017 WSJ article goes into detail about the Minneapolis and Denver housing shortage. The shortage is cited as being tied to laws and legal actions taken by homeowner associations against builders on behalf of townhome and condo developments. The laws are proposed to change to bring builder back into the market. This excerpt was especially telling…regarding the trend away from homes below $300,000.
One key element of the proposed laws “requires that at least half of homeowners agree to a construction defect lawsuit before one can be brought by a homeowners association”. The challenge I see with this is when a small percent of the owners are impacted and can’t get a majority of owners to agree to be concerned about it. In my time as a realtor I’ve seen some townhouses impacted by structural defects such as heaving driveways and sidewalks and other units not affected or some units with structural wall cracks if built into a hill and units built on flat ground not impacted. Builders need to be held to a high standard and have oversight over the projects from beginning to end.
Unfortunately, the current housing shortage in our market has created a lot of challenges for this years buyers.
Please share your comments.
Ingrid Friel, Realtor 
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