-
WORKING FAMILIES THAT SPEND MORE THAN half of their paychecks on close-in housing already have it tough. But a new report from the Center for Housing Policy, the research arm of the National Housing Conference, finds that housing and transportation combine to take two-thirds of their income. These...
-
Houston-based Royce Builders has come to the aid of a young family whose size more than doubled after the arrival of identical quadruplets. The builder joined with four other Houston businesses to give the family a new house, furniture, and a van, as well as car seats, strollers, high chairs, and...
-
Senior executives buy into the idea that information is power. At least, that's what a recent survey by the Association of Executive Search Consultants indicates. Of 497 top executives polled, 38 percent said the chief marketing officer is the most powerful C-level title other than CEO. The title...
-
Builder Homesite, a consortium of 35 of the industry's largest home builders, now reports that more than 1,500 new-home communities are listed on Casasnuevasaqui.com, a Web site of new-home listings in Spanish. The company underscored the need for the new Web site by pointing out that 65 percent of...
-
Humankind is fast becoming an urban species, according to the United Nations. Whereas only 14 percent of the world's population lived in cities in 1900, that number climbed to 47 percent by the end of the 20th century. Tokyo, Bombay, and New York count among the world's 20 “megacities,”...
-
IN A HOT HOUSING MARKET, A BUILDER must find ways to stay ahead of pack. Raleigh, N.C.–based St. rence Homes has launched a program to do just that. The company has partnered with Moline, Ill.–based lawn care manufacturer John Deere to build a “John Deere Signature Community” of upscale homes.
-
Public builders moved further into Florida in June. Toll Brothers purchased Landstar Homes in Orlando, which closed 471 homes for $115 million in revenue in 2004. The acquisition gives Toll control of 2,500 lots in Central Florida. Hollywood-based Technical Olympics USA (TOUSA) didn't look far for...
-
Nationally, most of the news around the latest round of base closings has been negative, as communities from New England to California cope with the potential economic dislocation of a base closing. Things may be different for Huntsville, Ala., which is hoping that its Redstone Arsenal may gain...
-
As part of its first quarter earnings report, The Home Depot announced plans to close 15 of its EXPO Design Center stores. The home décor chain incurred $20 million in expenses related to inventory markdowns during the first quarter. Five more EXPO stores will be converted into The Home Depot's...
WHY IT WORKED: Offering three single-family neighborhoods in this farming community up the coast from Los Angeles, The Casas—Bonita, Dulce (shown here), and Loma—sold out as soon as they were released by capturing a niche between affordable and luxury homes.
THE GREAT MODERNIST ARCHITECT Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is credited with delivering the über-famous dictum
THERE WAS A TIME WHEN 9-foot ceilings and walk-in closets were the stuff that luxury upgrades were made of. That was before the housing market went on steroids and super-sized homes with cathedral ceilings and three-car garage-mahals became the new gold standard.
IF YOU HAPPEN TO SHELL OUT $75 to get your hands on the 2004 National Association of Realtors home buyer profile, you might be disappointed—but probably not surprised. After scanning its 30 pages, you come away thinking today's buyers are fickle, superficial creatures who don't care about anything...
GOOD SITE PLANNERS WALK A lot. They eye parcels of land from every angle, inside and outside their boundaries, before ever picking up a pencil.
WHY IT WORKED: A more sophisticated design inside and out set this project, and specifically the Brookland model, apart in the Tampa market. A gated entrance and resort-style amenities appeal to move-ups and empty-nesters.
DAWN WAS BREAKING ON A mid-April morning when fire and rescue teams responded to a call that a house under construction by a local builder in Sammamish, Wash., was burning.
CHAD AND JAN WILSON HAVE been married for 16 years. They were college sweethearts. He's an electrical engineer; she's a marketing executive.
BUILDERS WHO THINK THEY are creating homes just for baby boomers should take a closer look: A new report on Census information from the NAHB says that 55 percent of new-home buyers were born after 1965. Younger buyers prefer new homes.
-
THE NAHB HAS FINALIZED a set of voluntary Green Home Building Guidelines in an effort to move environmentally friendly home building concepts further into the mainstream housing marketplace.
GIVEN CONSISTENTLY LOW INTEREST RATES and a vibrant housing market, it might appear that virtually anyone can share in the good times and purchase a home or find rental housing that meets his or her needs.
-
THE NUMBER OF SPEC HOMES—those builders start, and sometimes finish, before selling them—is rising. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's new-home sales data, the total number of homes for sale in May hit 439,000, 15.8 percent higher than a year earlier.
-
This month's top shelf products includes composite decking from CorrectDeck, the Prosite Protractor from Starrett Hardware Division, and the Pro 48 commercial-style refrigerator from Sub-Zero.
THE NAHB'S METHODICAL, STATE-by-state approach to solving the general liability insurance crisis by passing notice and opportunity to repair (NOR) laws nationwide is starting to make headway.
-
BUILDERS IN COLORADO benefited from the prolific veto pen of Republican Gov. Bill Owens when he nixed a bill that builders say unfairly required independent contractors to carry workers' comp insurance.
-
Modern incarnations of the Northeastern brownstone are popping up in unlikely markets faster than mushrooms after a downpour.
-
INDUSTRY EXPERTS ARE KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON the volatile foreclosure market, hoping that the high numbers being reported aren't a sign of future troubles. For the month of March, Florida-based Foreclosure.com reported a 50 percent increase in new foreclosure inventory listed for sale over February.
-
WHILE IT'S DIFFICULT to prove in a housing market with the extreme home-price appreciation seen during the last several years, appraisal inflation is adding to home buyers' and mortgage lenders' risk, according to industry watchers.
-
In terms of price appreciation, 14 of the hottest 25 vacation-home markets are in California, according to The Wall Street Journal. Topping the list was Ocean-side, where the median price of a vacation home was $509,000, with a 161.6 percent price change over five years. It was far from the...
-
Kansas City, Mo.–based Ecotone Publishing has launched what it says is the first-of-its-kind directory designed to serve as a resource book for locating firms, organizations, and institutions that are participating in the growth of green building. It will include information about architects...
-
The town of San Antonio recently held an unusual Showcase of Homes. Unlike the familiar luxury product found in Parade of Homes, this one featured 13 single-family, affordable homes, part of a subdivision designed by college students. The city acted as developer, and the program will result in 180...
HARVARD UNIVERSITY'S JOINT CENTER FOR Housing Studies set its annual report, “The State of the Nation's Housing 2005,” against the now-familiar backdrop of another record-shattering year for the housing industry. The authors, however, laced the study with concern about home prices that are...