Housing economy expert John Hunt of ViaSearch recently launched MarketNsight, a company focused on helping home builders and developers make smart decisions related to purchasing land and pricing product.
Hunt and the MarketNsight team’s extensive experience with banks and others during the housing downturn uncovered an alarming lack of systematic decision making. The antiquated tools available were inadequate for determining the merit of specific projects.
“Gone are the days of looking to multiple data sources for different city markets,” explained Hunt. “We have created a completely new way to gauge new home community feasibility across every new home market in the nation. MarketNsight leverages the most precise, global source of new and resale data and presents it in a completely unique platform customized for the new home industry.”
This groundbreaking platform is called the Feasibility Matrix®. Accurate granular data, coupled with clear graphic analytics, gives building professionals the optimum price and square footage with true cross-market compatibility to maximize absorption and profitability.
“Those in the building industry need to understand how their product and prices compare with what is already out there,” commented Hunt. “Our holistic approach and methodologies have a proven track record of helping financial institutions, builders and developers make better decisions.”
In December 2016, MarketNsight hosted the inaugural MarketWatch Atlanta at The Cobb Galleria Centre where he and speaker Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University, discussed President Trump’s policies and their possible influence on the housing market and overall economy. Hunt said during MarketWatch, “The future looks bright but different. We’re in a new normal.” He went on to explain that the market will continue to recover in 2017, but it will not look the same because of a paradigm shift precipitated by millennials, empty nesters and a growing preference for urban living.
After graduating from Samford University with a degree in Finance/Economics, Hunt worked as a marketing executive in the Atlanta housing industry until starting ViaSearch, a company that has surveyed over a quarter of a million home buyers and releases the New Home Buyer Report that tracks buyer demographics, product preferences and media ratings for new home buyers. Hunt worked with the team that predicted the housing downturn as early as September 2005; and, in 2009, he helped provide the housing data that led Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson to successfully extend the Home Buyer Tax Credit. When the National Association of Home Builders projected 977,000 single-family starts nationally and 30,000 for Atlanta in 2016, Hunt went against conventional thinking and accurately predicted 780,000 and 23,000 starts, respectively.
MarketNsight currently operates in 10 markets across the Southeast, including Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah, Georgia; Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Charlotte, North Carolina; Columbia and Greenville, South Carolina; and Chattanooga and Nashville, Tennessee.
To schedule a demonstration of the MarketNsight Feasibility Matrix®, call 770-419-9891 or email info@MarketNsight.com. For more information about MarketNsight and Hunt’s upcoming speaking engagements, including the Economic Forecasting Conference at Georgia State University on Feb. 22 and the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builder’s Economic Summit on March 1, visit www.marketnsight.com.