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New home sales rose 12.5 percent in May to a record 1.157 million annual rate, the Commerce Dept. announced today. The 12.5 percent May gain was the largest since September 1993. The May 1.157 million annual rate topped the previous record of 1.057 million set in September 2002.
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WASHINGTON, June 17, 2003 (Hanley-Wood News Service) - Housing starts increased 6.1 percent in May, as home building continued to be one of the few undisputed bright spots in the economy. New housing starts grew to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.732 million units, the Commerce Department...
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By Steve ZurierOracle's move to acquire PeopleSoft ended an exciting week for PeopleSoft, which last Monday announced a deal to acquire enterprise software maker J.D. Edwards for $1.7 billion. The PeopleSoft/Edwards deal is of special interest to home builders, since large builders such as Lennar...
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Builders who use the Internet to run e-commerce transactions with suppliers and subcontractors report tangible benefits--but their numbers are few overall. John Payton, director of information technology at Edward Hines Lumber Co. in Buffalo Grove, Ill., doesn't mince words when he talks about how...
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Nextel is staying sharp by rolling out two new applications that connect builders to building code officials and permit information, as well as offering its popular Direct Connect service nationally. The service, introduced about 10 years ago, lets builders use their Nextel phones like...
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Chief Architect is now shipping the new version of its 3D architectural design software, Chief Architect Professional Edition 9.0. New features include an extensive library of custom cabinets, doors, and window treatments; enhanced materials-list generation for easier cost estimating; the ability...
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Vantage Controls now offers the RadioLink Integration Package, a complete system for home automation that controls a home's audio, video, lighting, and HVAC. The package includes two VCR-like boxes: the RadioLink CBox master, which is the main controller, and TheatrePoint, which lets homeowners...
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SpeakerCraft recently entered into a strategic alliance with CorAccess Systems to market the CorAccess Control Station series of touchscreen interfaces for home audio and automation. The Control Station lets homeowners control audio, video, lighting, appliances, HVAC, and security.
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Sim2USA is shipping its Grand Cinema RTX line of rear projection monitors. The RTX comes with a DigiOptic Image Processor (DOIP) that accepts digital video signals and is connected by a single fiber-optic cable to the RTX monitor.
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Just a few years ago, it was rare for small contractors or builders to have more than one computer in their office, not to mention extra desktops in the family room, laptops in the truck, or pocket PDAs. All three of them need to read, modify, and print a common set of Microsoft Word and Excel...
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A $250,000 technology investment paid off in spades for Las Vegas-based Longford Group. All users, including Longford's remote users at its Albuquerque, N.M., division, access information from three database servers.
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"We were the first in our market to have a design center, but a lot of other builders are now offering them," says Kara Opanowicz, Hovnanian Enterprises' Home Design Gallery director. But the first company in the United States to offer a design center was probably Rayco Homes in San Antonio, says...
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But the fear of this Chicago neighborhood has faded, just like the colored Cabrini-Green sign with its missing letters.Financing such a deal proved just as complicated as one might expect, especially for Holsten's affordable and CHA segment of the project. The Windy City's troubled past with public...
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On April 22, 2003, Tucson, Ariz., builder John Wesley Miller, in partnership with the NAHB Research Center and Tucson Electric Power (TEP), celebrated Earth Day with the grand opening of Tucson's own Zero Energy Home (ZEH). The home is located at 458 E. Downtown St./3rd Ave. and 16th St., Tucson...
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Several years ago the NAHB surveyed builders, and shortages of skilled labor topped the list of builder problems, causing delays in time to completion and posing challenges to maintenance of quality standards.
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"Nation's Building News Online" is not only the place to learn about the housing industry, it's the place for the NAHB's grassroots members to express their views and concerns and to share their knowledge with fellow members.
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- Economists at the NAHB's semiannual Construction Forecast Conference predict significant improvements beginning in the second half of 2003.
- New study says home owners aged 50-plus aren't planning on spending their leisure time doing home maintenance.
- The House of Representatives passes the...
Many homeowners "don't understand the importance of their floor underlayment," says Billy Houston, vice president of sales for the structural panels division of Atlanta-based Georgia Pacific. But Sturd-I-Floor, he says, is a combined subfloor-underlayment product designed for single-layer floor...
The ever-changing product range is a win-win for builders who want to distinguish themselves from the pack, as well as for homeowners who want products that offer more power, style, and convenience. Nowhere was this more evident than at April's Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Orlando, Fla., where...
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After its May meeting on monetary policy and interest rates, the Fed alluded to the economy's ongoing weakness and "the probability of an unwelcome, substantial fall in inflation" or deflation.""If prices for goods and services start to fall, people may decide not to buy," say David Seiders, chief...
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O'Leary and the South Amboy Redevelopment Agency (SARA) dreamed more along the lines of "high-end Victorian Jersey shore," melded seamlessly with the city's 1920s-era stock of Victorians and bungalows.
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Municipalities in Minnesota are scheduled to file reports with the state legislature this month that delineate the income they receive from building permit fees and the expenses associated with building inspections.
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Not all home builders are big enough to make model-home merchandising work. This creates an inviting home environment that helps homes sell faster.
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Leah Bryant, president of the Vegas division of KB Home, was one of the first to embrace the NAHB Research Center's National Housing Quality Certified Trade Contractor Program.Dean Potter, director of quality programs for the NAHB Research Center, says that selling the trades on the program takes...
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The Florida HBA estimates that $10,000 of the price of a $100,000 home goes to workers' compensation premiums. A well-organized effort to control premiums, backed by many high-profile politicians has stalled, Ousley says, despite lawmaker acknowledgement that the building industry has helped keep...
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What do Washington, Miami-Dade County, Fla., Vail, Colo., Tucson, Ariz., and New York City share? All these markets, and many more, now face a rental glut, especially among luxury apartment units.
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Denver has a new mayor, auditor, and city council, but even though builders lobbied hard during last month's citywide elections to convince the politicians that the city's new inclusionary zoning ordinance was flawed, all signs point to the city moving forward as planned. The new ordinance, which...
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Just when the housing bubble talk was deflating, a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) study of 21 industrialized countries raises the issue again, suggesting that housing crashes hurt economies more than stock crashes.According to the report "When Bubbles Burst," housing busts, compared to...
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Laws already exist in Arizona and California requiring new developments to prove they have an assured 100-year water supply.
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Before he bought the recycling machines from Mableton, Ga.-based Packer Industries, Artistic Homes rented 22 Dumpsters a week to fill with construction debris.
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"We have always known that soils in Southern Nevada are extremely challenging," says Klif Andrews, vice president of community development for Pardee Homes in Las Vegas. Geotechnical engineer Greg DeSart of Geotechnical & Environmental Services in Las Vegas says that legal pressure is driving up...
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When the United States attacked Iraq in 1991, the housing market held its breath as potential buyers stayed tuned to CNN for hour after hour."This is a large ticket item, which they can buy at historic low cost to them because of the interest rates, and saving 1 percent on a mortgage over the long...
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Pulte boosted its California holdings in April, buying the assets of builder ColRich Communities. Lennar also bought in California, adding Coleman Homes of Bakersfield to its mix.
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An analysis of Orlando, Fla.'s economic health suggests that mortgage refinancing has been virtually the sole economic growth engine for the last year, heading off an otherwise disastrous recession. Refinancings now account for about 80 percent of all home loans.
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Enter the 2004 America's Best Builder contest. For an entry form or more information, contact Loretta Williams at 202-736-3455 or by e-mail at lwilliam@hanley-wood.com.
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The Texas Association of Builders is pushing for a bill that would require cities and counties to go into mediation if they don't meet a Sept. 1 deadline for deciding which party has legal authority over its extraterritorial jurisdictions (ETJ). An ETJ is land outside a city's borders that is...
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Builders battling impact fees can take heart from Duke Cox, a Colorado builder who just won such a fight in Silt, a mountain town near Aspen, Colo. Fees had escalated as high as $16,000 for a 2,000-square-foot house--more than twice what neighboring towns charged. "When the economy suffers, local...
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In two of the projects we feature this month, developers gambled and won big time on land Buyers are drawn by homes that are large enough for big parties, computer space for parents and children, and plenty of bedrooms for the kids.It's the same story at Fieldstone's Hamilton Farms, where Salt Lake...
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Proposed merger great for shareholders and general user base, but questions remain on future commitment to home building.