By KEVIN CHIRI

Publisher

LAPLACE — With the strong possibility that the population in St. John Parish may be ready to explode in the coming two years, where are all the people going to live?

And more importantly, what will the price of new homes be since Hurricane Katrina forced housing labor and supply costs to skyrocket.

Even with those problems to contend with, the three top builders in St. John Parish believe the space, and the cost will still be manageable.

Fortunately, Landcraft Homes, owned by Joey Scontrino, and Ray Leach Homes, already had several subdivisions of their own approved and getting built.

Scontrino, easily the biggest builder in St. John with over 100 starts in 2005, and perhaps as many as 200 planned for 2006, already had several subdivisions underway, or just getting off the ground.

That helped him already have a place to put the homes which apparently are in strong demand.

Scontrino already had Summerlin subdivision in the works for over a year, which will have a total of 1,000 homes when it is finished. New homes are still being built there as the subdivision winds down.

Then he has Cole’s Landing just

on the west side of LaPlace off Airline Highway, just beginning with 600 total home sites.

Effects from Katrina have pushed labor and material costs up &#8220about 12 percent,” Scontrino said, but more importantly is the way land prices are going up for any spot a builder wants to do a new development.

&#8220Land is up $10,000 to $20,000 an acre all over the place,” he said. &#8220And we’ve had a lot of labor prices double. Overall, we figure home prices are up about 10 to 12 percent, but I think that is something that the market can handle.”

The difficulty in the wild fluctuation of building costs makes it most difficult to put a price on a house, which can take longer than normal to build.

&#8220The only thing we have seen to start coming down in price a little is lumber lately,” he said. &#8220But otherwise, most every cost to build has gone up since the storm.”

All builders marvel somewhat at the cost for what is now considered a &#8220starter home.” Scontrino’s two local subdivisions begin as low as $132,000 in Cole’s Landing, with Summerlin up to $170,000 as the low price.

Leach has his first subdivision just on the verge of beginning building, as The Grove will offer homes in the $145,000 to $200,000 range. A total of 350 new homes will be built there, but Leach is quick to agree about the difficulty in pricing homes due to the cost swings going on.

&#8220Even though it looks like a lot of the increases from the storm are starting to peak, I still think there could be another move up,” he said. &#8220We are seeing a rise of about 15 percent to build a home now, as compared to before the storm. And of that, labor costs are probably up 50 percent in some areas.”

Like Scontrino, who was swamped with interest for new homes at a Cole’s Landing open house, Leach said he has also gotten a strong response to the prospect of homes being available in The Grove.

&#8220We have a list of 500 people who have expressed interest in the homes and when we have our invitation-only opening late in June, I expect to sell out all 62 homes, which is the first phase,” he said. &#8220The demand will continue to be strong here for quite a while since so many New Orleans people are concerned with the future of living there.”

Jimmie Gooden, owner of Gooden Homes, does building in a large regional area, but still expects 35 to 40 new home starts in St. John in 2006, his biggest year ever.

He has some homes in the $120,000 to $140,000 range, but also is amazed that the price for a &#8220starter home” has gotten that high.

&#8220People just can’t find a home for that price in New Orleans, and that is yet another reason so many are going to come here,” he said. &#8220Even the West Bank here, which has been slower to draw people in St. John, is going to catch on I believe.”

One subdivision in Wallace, called Sugarlane Estates, has homes in the $170,000 range and should begin to grower faster than it already is, Gooden predicted.

But Katrina related problems haven’t just made prices go up, he added.

&#8220Not only are costs higher, but it takes six to seven months to finish a house now, compared to four months before,” Gooden explained. &#8220But even with all that, once New Orleans people begin to make their final decisions about what they are going to do, you’re going to see many of them coming here.”