Paparone recalled that his father, builder/real estate agent Sam Paparone, had a rule of thumb - "Anytime you have a change in seasons or weather, it takes three weeks for people to get back to a normal routine" - and he said that would affect likely sales for a while.
For those deals already done, getting a mortgage commitment has been difficult, if not impossible, this week.
"Since it is in the D.C. area, which is even worse than here, the Fannie Mae capital-markets sales desk [where loans are approved for securitization] announced it would close at 11 a.m." Wednesday, said Jerome Scarpello, of Leo Mortgage in Spring House.
As the snow and wind created whiteout conditions for a time Wednesday, Marshal Granor, principal in Granor Price Homes, of Horsham, said: "We're closed today."
Granor Price had the good sense a few weeks ago, he said, "to hurry up and complete another 10-unit spec building" at its project in Royersford to meet the June 30 closing deadline for sales to qualify for the tax credit.
And on Tuesday, a snowblower was rented to clear the foundation so crews could deal with Wednesday's storm quickly and still get framing under way later this week or early next week, Granor said.
Aside from the dearth of sales and the inconvenience, there also are hidden costs involved with these back-to-back storms, he said.
"The expense of clearing snow - for us and for the community associations where we are building - is huge," Granor said. "Every condo and homeowners association is suffering, and may need cash infusions quickly. Some were already running low on cash if they have foreclosures or delinquent owners."
