Springfield Business Journal_2020-06-15

the sales made were from first-time homebuyers, according to the data. Nationwide, Freddie Mac officials es- timate that it will take an additional 2.5 million housing units to make up for the national supply shortage. Steve King, director of residential lending at Great Southern Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: GSBC), said despite the pandemic, the bank’s purchase lending is on track to match last year’s volume, if not beat it. King said he was origi- nally anticipating a higher year for home purchasing before the pandemic. Through May, the bank has closed 400 purchases in the Springfield market, compared with last year’s total of 793 loans. “Purchases have stayed really steady,” said King, citing the low interest rates staving off significant declines during the pandemic. King also confirmed loan applica- tions for homes priced $500,000 and up have been in demand. Harle said some of the high-dollar home activity she’s experi- enced comes from people leaving Springfield for an- other job. Leslie Horner, co-own- er and broker at Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Southwest Group, said in an SBJ CEO Roundtable last month that high-dollar homes in the area are attractive to out-of-state buyers. “We’re seeing, and probably we’ll see more, people come in here from the coastlines that are either retiring or they’re just wanting out of that and moved back to our area and they’ve got the money to buy those high-end homes,” Horner said. King said he anticipates June will be a busy month for home purchases based off typical seasonal demand and because interest rates are likely to re- main low in the short term. “We’re seeing economic recovery, and as that happens, the rates will trend up, but we haven’t seen a sharp economic recovery so far,” he said. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan legislative agency, re- leased an analysis at the end of May that indicated it could take the better part of a decade for the U.S. economy to fully recover from shutdowns re- lated to the pandemic. The office esti- mates that the effects of the pandemic will reduce cumulative gross domestic product by 3%, or $7.9 trillion, by the end of the decade. Web Editor Geoff Pickle contributed. Repair rise The demand has led to a significant uptick in repair work for local shops, as people have been bringing old bi- cycles in for service since the start of the pandemic. “Once we got the initial week of shutdown, we had to extend out our service times more than normal,” Johnson said, adding jobs at A&B Cycle prior to late March were finished in around 48 hours. “It then just kept get- ting busier and busier.” Completion times have stretched beyond two weeks, with around 100 repair jobs currently in progress, Johnson said. The weekly work order is typically 40-60 jobs. Queen City Cycles employee Jeff Anderson said repair work since March at the Rountree neighborhood shop is up about 50% to roughly 30 service orders per week. Job com- pletion turnaround has doubled to around two weeks over the past cou- ple of months. As the coronavirus began spread- ing, so too did national sales for bikes and shop services. Market research firm NPD Group Inc. said U.S. bike sales and services rose 44% to $733 million in March. Johannpeter said his shop doubled its weekly work orders to 70 from 35 by late March – an increase that has re- mained through early June. The three owners, which include Colin Brixey and Jason Allen, are the shop’s lone employ- ees. They’ve discussed adding staff. “Is this a momentary spike in busi- ness or is it going to be a sustained thing?” Johannpeter said.  The $54 billion global bicycle mar- ket grew 6.9% last year, and it’s poised to see sales in some bike categories rise 35% in 2020, according to Lexington, Massachusetts-based Win- terGreen Research Inc.   At Queen City Cycles, Anderson said sales and service business is up around 35% since the pan- demic began, declining to disclose totals. However, he said the service side is going to be an even more important component for the shop in the coming weeks as stock from suppliers, such as Bloomington, Minnesota- based Quality Bicycle Products, has slowed considerably.  Chain struggles Bike shops began experiencing sup- ply chain struggles in April, as the pandemic forced many of the manufac- turing plants in Asia to shut down. As a result, many shops, including A&B, are seeing bikes disappearing from stock quicker than they can be re- plenished.  “Bikes are big and expensive, so they’re hard to store a lot of,” Johnson said, noting A&B is out of most every bike priced under $1,500. “There’s not very much back inventory with any manu- facturer in the bike industry.” Johnson said orders have come in randomly, with some weeks passing without any new deliveries.  “We have probably 100 bikes on back-order,” he said. “Those will probably all disappear as soon as they come in.” Johannpeter said his shop only sells bikes from California-based Specialized Components Inc., which has distribution centers in Colum- bus, Ohio, and Salt Lake City, Utah. While bikes have been in shorter supply, he said they’ve largely been able to keep up with orders to this point.   “It isn’t that customer traffic has slowed down or demand has slowed down. It’s the availability of product that’s the issue now,” he said, adding shipments that usually were taking two days are around 10 days now.  Parts supplies also have been run- ning low at Adventure Bicycle, Johan- npeter said. Basic items every shop should have, such as a 26-inch bike tube, are virtually out of stock from the company’s vendors, he said. That could delay repairs or require the use of different model’s parts.  June will be much more dependent on service work than sales, Johnson said, adding the shop is order- ing more electric bikes and other higher-end mod- els in the $2,000- $3,000 range.  Bike shop oper- ators are skeptical the supply chain will get back to normal before the end of summer.  “It could take up to six months to really get back our inventory that we normally have,” Johnson said. “They might surprise us. Who knows? There’s never been any- thing like this.” SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 51 JUNE 15-21, 2020 NEWS Homes: US housing shortage sits near 2.5M units Continued from page 3 Bicycle: Repair work orders double at local shops Continued from page 3 Jim Hutcheson : Interest rates are driving market demand. Bryant Johnson : It may take up to six months at A&B Cycle to restore inventory. 70 Weekly total of bike repair orders at Adventure Bicycle Co. EXECUTIVE MARKETPLACE Price: $1,399,000 3 Acres In Kickapoo School District | MLS #60117999 What a wonderful family estate this is! Enjoy spacious rooms with a grand master suite and bath with 2 walk-in closets & morning bar on the main floor plus a study. Two large bedroom ensuites are upstairs with both having a whirlpool tub & shower + 2 more bedrooms downstairs. The chef’s kitchen includes a sub zero refrigerator & Woolf gas range with a large center island open to a great family room and formal dining room to seat the whole family with flagstone flooring! The lower level offers a 2nd kitchen and large entertainment area, 2nd laundry, exercise room and walk out to the in-ground pool and basketball court all on approx 3 acres to enjoy at the city’s edge. This has it all including multiple breakfast bars, 4 fireplaces & 8 car garages for all the toys and cars with a circle drive! 500-750 SQUARE- FOOT OFFICE SPACE CENTRALLY LOCATED ON SUNSHINE CALL TO SEE 417.882.0690 • Customized Infill • Conference room on site • Plenty of parking • Paid utilities Software Engineer. Netsmart Technologies, Inc. Springfield, MO. Analyze & dvlp new code. Reqs Bach in CIS/ Comp Sci/rel/equiv & 3 yrs SW engg/dvlpmnt exp incl 3 yrs: hands on code; design, build & operate secure, scalable & highly avail web & mobile apps & distributed systems w/ srvc-oriented & mssg queue architecture in cloud; Agile dvlpmnt processes; production support & troubleshoot. M-F 8 a - 5 p & after hrs/on-call/OT. Reqs 20% U.S. trvl. Resume to: Netsmart HR, 11100 Nall Avenue, Overland Park, KS 66211 & ref 104225 CAREER OPPORTUNITY A GOOD DEAL MORE FOR A GOOD DEAL LESS. | MLS #60151589 Don’t miss seeing this custom-built home in James Valley Farms.With over 5100 sq. ft, it offers lots of special features. Situated on a large wooded lot, it’s an all-brick with a 3-car garage and a walk-out basement.The main level has both a formal living room and hearth room, an eat-in kitchen, 3-sided fireplace, butlers’ pantry, formal dining, and 3 bedrooms or 2 with an office. A sunroom with surround sound is an extra bonus.A second see-through fireplace is in the master suite which also has a jetted tub, walk-in shower, built-in ironing board and large walk-in closet.A door leading to the deck is also off the master bedroom. Granite counters are in the kitchen and master bath.The w/o basement has 11 and 12’ ceilings, an open area with kitchenette, family room and sitting area with see-through fireplace that is shared by a bedroom.There is also an exercise room w/ safe. Located just off east Sunshine, it is convenient to Hwy 65. 60151589 417-447-4968 ethelcurbow.com $450,000