The home building business takes an extraordinary amount of drive and dedication, so it's not surprising that most builders eat, breathe, and sleep housing. But life is composed of so much more than what happens at work, and without the balance of a life well-lived, the challenges of the business...
-
In the past, The Corky Mc-Millin Cos. would almost always sell to other builders and developers parcels within its master planned communities that were zoned for attached-home construction. Not anymore.
-
Who says compact can't be terrific? With its comforting front porch and shingled dormers, Plan 2 at Acacia looks like something from the set of “Leave It to Beaver.” Cute as it is, though, there's nothing retro about this 2,866-square-foot home, designed by Dahlin Group and part of a collection of...
-
When you are fortunate enough to have one of the most breathtaking views in the country, you want to enjoy it as much as possible. That's how architect Denis Henmi's clients felt about the custom home they commissioned in Southern Utah.
-
The newest resident in Oakland's Jack London Square neighborhood makes a great first impression. Amid-rise luxury building with 70 condominiums and four live/work units on just under a half acre, it proves that high density and great visual impact aren't mutually exclusive. Almost a full city block...
-
The quaint Northern California town of Campbell has a few claims to fame. It's the original home to e-Bay and the birthplace of fruit cocktail (although the latter remains a topic of some dispute). These days it's getting noticed for an expanding light-rail system and a subsequent boom of...
-
The most interesting thing about this jewel of a house, situated on a breathtaking lot overlooking the Pacific Ocean, isn't that it's well appointed, or that it's faithful in its homage to Spanish architecture. It's that its luxury is expressed in such an understated, almost soft-spoken way.
-
Looking for a sure-fire way to distinguish yourself from all the other builders in a New Urbanist community? Take a cue from Denver-based Infinity Home Collection and its Sky Terrace project at Stapleton, the ambitious re-purposing of 4,700 acres that were once Denver's airport. At build-out...
-
Talk about a community that has it all. High Point, Seattle's first neighborhood to merge sustainable design with social conscience, is a 120-acre HUD Hope VI project that replaces, in the words of a Seattle Times editorial, “a hideous old public housing project of barracks-like structures” that...
-
With scores of contenders vying for the title, winning a project of the year distinction is no small feat. The judges chose this thoughtfully executed neighborhood because it offers the entire package—good site plan, diverse floor plans, interesting use of materials, and relationship with its...
-
Al fresco living spaces and four-car garages are the kinds of goodies one would expect in a large home on a well-endowed parcel, where dirt is no object and the setbacks are generous. Now check this out: a single-family city residence that serves up the same menu on a lot measuring just 40 feet...
They are greenfields, brownfields, grayfields, and desert outposts. The 44th annual Gold Nugget Awards celebrate Western projects that transcend the norm and reshape the housing landscape as we know it. Don't look now, but the showy castles that dominated housing competitions in the not-so-distant...
Builders around the country were forced last year to ask what, exactly, market share meant if holding onto it required giving away the farm. Saddled with cancelled contracts and unsold homes, many builders saw their only solution as doing whatever it took to lower their inventories through mortgage...
-
LAST YEAR SAW THE HIGHEST number of housing discrimination complaints ever filed in the U.S. in a single year. According to HUD's annual fair housing report, the federal agency and state and local government agencies received 10,328 such complaints in 2006. Race and disability, the report says...
BUSINESS IS BAD ENOUGH, SO it's understandable that builders in Virginia's Prince William County and nearby Loudoun County were upset when the board of supervisors in both counties passed resolutions saying they would take 12 months before approving any new residential project.
-
MODEL HOMES ARE ESSENTIAL MARKETING tools for many builders. But these homes can also be among the more vulnerable elements on jobsites, which are often susceptible to illegal entry and theft.
-
MOLD-RESISTANT GYPSUM and concrete made with waste from coal-fired power plants are among the top 10 home building technologies for 2007, according to the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH). PATH, a program run by HUD, says the 10 technologies are the future of home building and...
-
We've all heard it from industry analysts and experts: Builders are slashing their prices. People are buying new homes for less than they paid a year ago. And builders are continuing to cut prices in 2007, trying to move their unsold inventory before prices fall even further.