Homebuilders in Greater Cleveland were busy in 2020, and 2021 looks even better Michelle Jarboe Knez Homes expects to complete the first of 60-plus planned homes in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood in mid-March. The homes are rising on scattered sites just south of the Cleveland Clinic's main campus. For homebuilders in Greater Cleveland, 2020 was a blockbuster year. The outlook for 2021 is even better. "It has been absolutely crazy for the last month," said Mike Kandra, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland. "New construction is kind of what people are heading toward, simply because there's no supply of existing homes." Scant listings and ferocious buyer demand are promising to buoy new construction into 2022 and beyond. Local builders say they're barely able to keep up in an industry that's still a fraction of what it was before the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009.