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The new Innoventions Dream Home in the heart of Disney's Tomorrowland showcases the latest high-touch, high-dazzle home technologies.
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Whirlpool shows new refrigerator that lets homeowners swap out digital features.
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News Flash: The sun is hot. there's renewed and widespread attention being paid to it as a legitimate home energy source—and this time that interest might stick. A perfect storm of factors has come together to keep solar solutions on the front burner, including record crude oil prices, federal tax...
The housing industry has finally reached the point where many home builders feel that the software products available can meet their business needs, but the ongoing downturn has put a damper on information technology (IT) spending.
The downturn has left little room for good news, but the story of James Otis, a partner in Accord Development in Glenwood Springs, Colo., reminds us that there's always housing activity somewhere.
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Builders, architects, urban planners, and sustainability experts held a design charrette on Oct. 24 to come up with floor plans, construction processes, and product suggestions for Concept House Charleston in South Carolina, the second PATH Concept Home and the first in the Southeastern U.S.
During the rise of the internet era in the late 1990s, while the automotive, aerospace, and most other industries moved forward with B2B e-commerce, BuildNet, the building industry's e-commerce play, failed miserably. The result was that home building lagged far behind most other industries in this...
One positive aspect of the housing slowdown is that home builders now have the time to evaluate and ultimately deploy technology that can make their operations more efficient.
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If you were among the many visitors at this year's International Builders' Show in February, there is one question you should have been asking yourself: What's next for the major appliances category?
One Atlanta builder uses collaboration software and improved sawing technology to solve a perennial challenge:to deliver flooring systems that are accurate and on time and can be backed up by warranty in the event of a defect.
In the late 1990s, Jim Norman, President of Norman Building & Design, a custom builder who designs and builds about 12 homes a year in Bend, Ore., knew he needed a Web site, but he never imagined how powerful a marketing tool it would become.
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IN SOME OF ITS NEW COMMUNITIES IN THE southeast, D.R. Horton is gaining notoriety by offering a unique technology package that includes a 24/7 “tech concierge” who will take home buyers' calls and either troubleshoot a tech problem over the phone or send out a technician.
- A new deduction for mortgage insurance premiums gives buyers another financing option.
- A Florida circuit court in January awarded Pulte Homes $1.16 million for impact fees it paid to cover school construction in Osceola County.
- Builders looking to get out from under pricey inventory...
Facts and figures about the use of information technology in the housing industry are interesting, but often builders' comments are the best source for understanding how IT can make a difference in a construction company's success.
With its warm woods and decadent finishes, this upscale residence offers proof that a high-tech home needn't be sterile to get its groove on. The ideal home-automation system is so seamless that it's nearly invisible, and can happily coexist with any style of interior design, including one that...
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Modern life moves at warp speed, and each day is an exercise in controlled chaos. The desire for a simpler existence is ever present in our juggling of personal, family, and business commitments. Home is sought out as a spot for refuge and rejuvenation—the place we go to recharge our batteries and...
By the first year or two of this decade, many home builders had soured on the Internet. The fraud case surrounding Enron and the wave of dot-com crashes in the late '90s widely discredited the Web as a business model. The building industry even had its own homegrown dot-bomb: the ill-fated BuildNet.
Like the street-level retail and small professional offices provided under the condos sprouting up around Lake Eola, the home's main floor offers occasional and functional spaces for the household.
In the spring of 2005, Taylor Woodrow's Irvine, Calif.–based Western region found itself “in a tighter box,” where it was being squeezed by competitors that are “smart and great at what they do,” and where buyers were having trouble telling the difference between Taylor Woodrow's product and...
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Four of the most prominent companies in the home-technology business have banded together under the General Electric brand name to partner with large national home builders via exclusive marketing agreements.