Greth moves forward

Walter T. Greth keeps an eye on the bidding during the real estate auction his company was involved in last month. Greth?s home building business has been hurt by the downturn in the housing market, with many homes and lots going unsold. The auction was intended to clear excess inventory.

The home builder cleared 20 homes and hundreds of lots off its books after last month?s huge real estate auction

By Ford Turner

Reading Eagle

Veteran home builder Walter T. Greth, after staging what may have been the biggest residential real estate auction in Berks County history, offered a succinct summary of its effect on prices of his homes.

?The bottom has been established,? Greth said. ?That was lower than they are ever going to buy stuff, at least from us.?

Tight finances resulting from the housing industry collapse prompted Greth to hold a massive auction of homes, lots and subdivisions on March 10 at the Riveredge in Bern Township. It generated more than $4 million for Greth, whose office and design center are in Maidencreek Township.

He said it was too soon to be specific about the auction?s financial ramifications. Closings on many of the real estate purchases spawned by the auction have not occurred.

About 20 homes and hundreds of lots were sold.

?We are still working through the deals,? he said. ?I am glad we moved inventory.?

One model home for a development sold for 24.2 percent less than its $356,000 list price. The biggest discount, 48 percent, was obtained by the buyer of a Spring Township home listed at $332,000.

The fact that the auction prices were discounted but not rock bottom ? selling for perhaps two-thirds off ? was a positive thing for the market, according to Christian D. Malesic, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Berks County.

?This tells us that we are not going down,? Malesic said. ?We are seeing that we are not going negative.?

Greth is president and sole shareholder of Greth Homes and Greth Development Group. He has built nearly 2,000 homes in four decades in the building industry.

He was prompted to schedule the auction when the collapse of the housing industry caused him to accumulate a massive amount of unsold property on which he had to pay taxes and debt, while collecting little in home-sales revenue.

?Getting inventory moved in the marketplace is a good thing,? said Jeffrey T. Sicher, president of the Reading-Berks Association of Realtors and a 31-year-veteran of the real estate business. ?I don?t recall seeing an auction of this magnitude happen in the county.?

In recent months there have been mixed signals on whether the dismal housing market has turned around.

In Berks County, though, Sicher said things appear to be improving.

?The activity in the last five weeks has visibly been much better than last year during the same time frame,? he said. ?More calls coming in. More showings. More buyers actually looking to buy real estate.?

At the Home Builders Association, even if there has not been a surge in new home construction, Malesic said, members are seeing more money flowing into existing-home renovation projects such as the installation of new carpeting, new tile or new doors.

Contact Ford Turner: 610-371-5037 or fturner@readingeagle.com.

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