Neal Communities announced strong sales in the second quarter, with 89 homes sold in June alone. The Lakewood Ranch-based homebuilder set a new record for itself with 563 homes sold in the first six months of the year, ahead of pace for its publicly-state goal of selling 1,000 homes in 2015. We spoke with company President Michael Storey about the conditions leading to the hot streak, and about long the good times for builders will last.

The housing bust still feels like yesterday, but your sales indicate the market for new homes may be stronger than ever. Why is the market hot right now? You have to remember our core buyer is a buyer looking to retire to Florida. That is the strongest buying demographic in country right now. People entering retirement are the most likely to buy in any market in the country. Our market is less job-centric, so an issue like wage growth isn’t as important here. Now our communities are attractive to other groups—we really serve most of the buyer segment—but the strongest for us is what we call OPALs, Older People with Active Lifestyles.

What price range is performing strongest right now for Neal? Anything under $400,000 is doing well. The strongest market is still mid-200s, and really the price is moving up to between $250,000 and $300,000. That product is doing well.

Neal performed well even through the recession and remains a market leader here. How has the company held onto its position? We have a 45-year brand in the marketplace. We are the local hometown builder and that gives us a lot of credibility with the buying public. And we control a lot of land and a lot of lots. Land is the fuel that runs the homebuilding business, and we have the ability to expand.

Where are we in the boom-bust cycle? I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and I’m 0-for-35 in predicting what the next cycle is going to be or when it’s going to be. In our business we plan for rising markets and react to down markets; that’s about all can do. But my opinion is we are certainly not at the peak, and the market has a ways to go. We are probably in the middle innings, but I’m not sure if this is the third inning or sixth inning.