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Small- and mid-cap builders have closed the valuation gap between themselves and the big-caps, but for how long? Historically, smaller public builders such as Ryland, Meritage, Standard Pacific, M.D.C., and Beazer have traded at lower valuations than their big-cap colleagues.
While you were on your summer vacation--and work was a distant memory--tool manufacturers were unveiling their latest tools and accessories, hottest technologies, and all-around great gadgets.
A few years ago, when the Lewis family began discussing the future of their California home building business, selling represented just one of their choices.
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How does a private builder put a price tag on his life's work? As any builder who's bought or sold a company will tell you, there's more to valuing a home building operation than simply reviewing the books and checking the latest multiples on Wall Street.
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For the most part, the 13 builders who sold their companies to Fortress came out relatively unscathed.
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They called them "poof roll-ups," and for a few years in the mid-1990s they were the rage of Wall Street. Financiers combined or rolled up several private companies in an industry, such as flower shops or limousine services, into a single entity and ? poof ? created a $100-million public company...
The maelstrom came about when the privately held Denver-based firm Sanford Homes was acquired by Beazer Homes USA in August 2001.
Orenco Station is a thriving, mixed-use pocket of suburbia, an urban-style utopia on the outskirts of Portland in Hillsboro, Ore. Residential neighborhoods in most of the still-evolving, 200-acre community are less than half a mile from the light-rail station, which links Hillsboro with downtown...
You've heard it a millions times -- you only get one chance to make a first impression. Well, like it or not, it's true. And for a builder, that initial contact point is usually the sales center, so it's got to make a significant positive impact.
For five days last summer, about 4,000 Habitat for Humanity volunteers joined with former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in Durban, South Africa, for the 19th annual Jimmy Carter Work Project.
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There's a reason why most people don't go into the land development business. Sit down with any developer and you'll hear stories about pitfalls and capricious character. In this profession, survival demands the patience of Job and the optimism of Pollyanna. Every victory is hard-won, and the...
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At Maracay Homes, models used to be merchandised by themes. "We did it the same way as other builders did," says David Bessey, president and CEO of the Scottsdale, Ariz., company, which closed 450 homes last year. Today, those decorating themes are gone at Maracay, replaced by an approach based on...
In this era of consolidation and growth in our industry, M.D.C. Holdings is actively pursuing opportunities to acquire the businesses of smaller home builders. This transaction structure, in most cases, holds both buyer and seller responsible for only the results of their actions during their...
The passage of defect legislation in California brings welcome change to the state's construction-dispute laws, long the affliction of the condo market.
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Prompted by tight borrowing conditions for manufactured-home buyers, manufacturers are shifting away from the industry's traditional chattel lending to real estate lending. Unlike the losses reported by Champion and Palm Harbor in the June 2002 quarter, Clayton, based in Maryville, Tenn., reported...
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For the first time, one of WCI Communities' models will be completely green. WCI is moving away from the experimental stage and bringing green building into a more production-related environment," says Ken Plonski, director of communications for the builder.
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For Jim Previti's Empire Cos., based in Irvine, Calif., there's nothing more unsightly in a master planned community than a withered sign that reads, "Future School." While up-front development costs are greater, the company pays nothing out of pocket because the cost is rolled over to the sale of...
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In an effort to boost closings volume significantly, Colony Homes is taking a more thorough approach to land management.
New Jersey's largest home builder has a new tactic. In response to a shortage of land in the state, K. Hovnanian Cos. launched Private Home Portfolio, a division that builds homes for customers on their own lots.
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After more than 20 years in Houston, Standard Pacific is exiting the market. Of the company's 4,311 closings nationwide last year, Houston generated just 76 -- down from a high of 296 in 1983.
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The purchase of two Chicago builders provides Lennar Corp. with a familiar vista -- looking down at its competitors.
If there were any doubt about the likelihood of continued consolidation in home building, this year's merger activity should have dispelled it. A dozen or so noteworthy deals have come to pass thus far, half of them involving one Builder 100 company buying another.
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Big corporations use multimedia presentations in their marketing efforts as well as to train employees and salespeople. Seff's software of choice for presentations is Microsoft PowerPoint because it's so versatile and easy to use.
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Most "best-practices" backup procedures in use today were established around 1990 when magnetic hard drives cost $10,000 per gigabyte of storage (now, more like $2), and system-to-system compatibility was poor at best. For example, the $299 IOGear (www.iogear.com) ION external hard drive houses a...
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Since Newport Beach, Calif.-based John Laing Homes launched its redesigned Web site in mid-June, the average number of people who fill out a contact form requesting more information has increased more than 400 percent. When Laing launched its first Web site three years ago, serving buyers was just...
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Looking for an inexpensive but familiar alternative to the Windows operating system? Desktop/LX is a release of Linux that looks and works a lot like Windows XP, which should make it fairly painless for your users to make the switch.
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A recent Harris Poll found that while 45 percent of broadband subscribers wanted advanced services (music, streaming video, games, home networking), more than 90 percent wouldn't consider buying those services from their current provider. So if customer service doesn't improve, they may have...
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Either way, the viability of online permit services seems to be fading fast. Most recently NetClerk, which had a library of 30,000 permit forms for 2,000 locales, was acquired by Chicago-based Builders Information Group (BIG Co.), and will be morphed from an online permit engine into a data mining...
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Current expert predictions are that sales of customer relationship management (CRM) software will grow anywhere from $29 billion to $49 billion per year over the next few years. With that kind of market potential, it was just a matter of time before Microsoft got into the business.
While public companies report record orders, many hometown builders have a different experience to report--weakening demand, ruthless price concessions, and a shifting market."The entry-level and the high-end custom remains pretty good, but the middle has just gone away," says Victoria, Texas-based...
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Add up the spec books, copies of blueprints, and reproducible Mylar floor plans required to bid and build just one 100-home community, and you quickly find yourself with a very large bill from the blueprint company--unless you run Amber Homes, which moved its blueprints online this year. "When we...
J. Barrows, a Cazenovia, N.Y.-based company that specializes in new-home construction, remodeling, historic renovation, and light commercial construction. ERIC BROWN, president of Artisan Homes of Phoenix, has been consulted by various television news shows and newspaper publications on real estate...
Techniques borrowed from the centuries-old craft of boat building help this 10-by-10 bathroom live larger and more efficiently on its small footprint. Multiple colors and types of wood layer detail and order into a modern open floor plan. Using wood as a texture carries through to the ceiling in...
Building a 77-unit townhouse community to fit into a historic town built in the 1800s was a tough design challenge for architects Guy Farris and Dan McAllister.
Designed for seniors in need of various levels of daily assistance, this 87,911-square-foot rental project brings in about $2,895 per month in rent for each of its 142 units.
Intended to reflect the style of a boutique hotel, this luxury apartment project, located in the Hollywood studio area of Santa Monica, includes 350 rental units, which range in size from small studios (612 square feet) to penthouse suites (1,555 square feet), and rent for $1,655 to $4,465. Nearly...
Homes are priced from $259,900 to $321,900--very affordable for the Irvine market.
The Don Evans architectural style has become as much a fixture of the cultural landscape of Florida as golf and greyhound racing. Architect Don Evans added another level to the original lodge built in the 1930s.
Located among commercial and warehouse buildings, the two towers of the Pacific Place condominiums strike a confident pose in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood. Retail shops line Van Ness Avenue with townhomes located on top.
Recognizing a need for affordable living and working spaces for artists in the Pittsburgh area, Artists and Cities decided to do something about it. The Ice House is the second of the group's two buildings, says Linda Metropulos, one of the founders of the group. "We wanted to do that for...
Most of the builders that architect Scott Mower works with prefer traditional styles and shun edgy design. The result is a handsome seven-unit condominium project boasting two unit types in a historic area of St. Paul.
Located across the Chicago River from a four-level athletic and dining facility called the East Bank Club, this new community revitalizes an area of warehouses and abandoned railroad yards. Architect George Pappageorge notes that the development has the advantage of river views from many units, and...
Larry Parker, project manager and architect with Arlo Braun & Associates, says the 1,941-square-foot model has proven very popular. Selling for $232,900, the Monroe costs $77 per square foot to build, with land costs of $36,000 to prepare the 44-by-95-foot lot.
Everyone could use a pool house this nice. The pool is located in a double-height space with soaring timber-frame ceilings. Much like the baths enjoyed in ancient times, the nicely detailed and well-executed pool pavilion is appropriately oriented so bathers can soak up the warm, afternoon sun.
The angular plan of this 5,000-square-foot house takes advantage of its siting on a spherical, cul-de-sac lot. "It narrows at the front of the house but fans out at the back," says architect R. Doug Mansfield, noting several efficiencies of the floor plan. "We intentionally made the houses look...
So, in the meantime, architect Christian Schmitt, principal of Schmitt Sampson Walker, designed a guesthouse, garage, and workshop.In response, Schmitt devised an internally focused series of buildings.
Fabulous loft spaces are not easy to come by in the nation's capital. For $100 per square foot, local architect Norman Smith has converted the third floor of a three-story 1920s automobile showroom in the Adam's Morgan neighborhood into slick, $1.3 million loft units.
In this exclusive California hillside community, a half million dollars won't buy a custom mansion, but you can get the next best thing: the Everett, a 2,634-square-foot production home priced at about $500,000. Architects Bill Hezmalhalch and Don White created the plan with attractive elevations...
These 30 townhomes posed a heck of a design challenge for Devereaux and Associates. "The design [solution] essentially took three basements," Devereaux says.
One side of Post Properties' 245-unit project faces the peaceful Shoal Creek; the other side fronts a railroad track. The creek side elevation overlooks a hiking and biking trail, and Post rebuilt the creek bank to meet the property and stabilize the embankment.
With shingle siding and crisp white trim, this relaxed, rural beach home along the coast in northern San Diego County is reminiscent of a classic California bungalow. Three of the secondary bedrooms are on the opposite side of the plan, near wide-open formal and informal living spaces with French...
Mark Hutker & Associates is known for well-designed heirloom houses that are sympathetic to their sites. Located on ocean-front property, the house sits lightly on the landscape and incorporates hearty materials such as cedar siding, lead-coated copper roofs, and bronze hardware to weather the...
Parking garages are a necessary evil in city life--practical but hardly attractive. This apartment project, designed by David Furman Architecture, effectively hides an eight-level parking garage even as it creates a much-needed vibrant streetscape within a mixed-used office development.
Alberto Abad was out to shock his neighbors. "There are only two other really modern houses in Naples," says Abad, who didn't expect his house to be quite the landmark it has become. Cypress wood throughout the design softens the sharp edges of the 3,051-square-foot home, which Abad describes as...
It's not easy to design an environmentally sensitive land plan that includes 120 entry-level homes. Although the lake is private, Land Planner David Jensen, of David Jensen and Associates in Denver, created a water walk and gazebo so residents can still enjoy it.
"The big thing in Portland's planning is keeping the street level part of a pedestrian experience," notes Leeb.
To hear developer Ralph Spargo tell it, making this 183-unit project work rests on one principle: steering away from cliches about active adults and looking at the reality of older people's lifestyles. There's a lot of difference between somebody who is 55 versus 90, somebody retired versus still...
Built on 4.5 acres, this timber-framed beauty, built for $290 per square foot, rests next to an exclusive country club adjacent to the highest private runway east of the Rockies.
At an average of 29 units per acre, residential construction doesn't get much denser than this mixed-income project, set close to regional public transport and done without planning variances.That density, notes architect David Baker, was part of the key to keeping units affordable.
Designed for empty-nesters, this lavish 3,785-square-foot home was part of a 61-unit subdivision of single-family, move-up product. This home was offered for sale at about $800,000, although the developer won't discuss construction costs.
"We divided the mass so that the living area is over one townhome garage and the bedrooms over the other garages," Senikoff says. The beachy exterior, with heavy stucco, board and batten, and deep overhangs with brackets, was inspired by Senikoff's trip to Rosemary Beach, a neo-traditional...
The 3,000-acre parcel of land where The Pinehills is located was begging not to be subdivided into cookie-cutter plots as had been done to many other areas in Plymouth. "The site has unusual topography," says Tony Green, managing partner of Pinehills LLC. "It has high elevation to low, steep hills...
Sometimes having to work within tight constraints yields wonderful results. An example of this is the 2,170-square-foot, Craftsman-style bungalow that JBZ Architecture + Planning designed for Brookfield Homes.
Although much of this old Florida brewery looks like a carefully restored antique, the true story is more real world: Truckload after truckload of useless infrastructure was carted to the landfill to make way for modern building codes. "We found it in pretty bad condition," notes architect...
The architects at Cunningham and Quill enjoy a challenge, especially when those challenges turn into opportunities to create lively projects on otherwise dull sites. The firm's latest accomplishment is Tenley Hill, a mixed-use building that bridges the gap between a commercial and residential zone...
Situated among rock outcroppings in the hillside of Scottsdale, Chiricahua Villas was designed to fit into its desert location. "The deep grouted roofs give the feeling of handcrafting and add to the perceived value of the homes," says Berkus.
Because of the city of Sonoma, Calif.'s strict architectural guidelines, the Larwin Co. couldn't use any of its existing plans in its new 47-lot community called Vintage Sonoma. The builder called upon architect Philip Volkman, a partner in the Danville, Calif.-based firm of Barry & Volkman, to...
Most stories about infill projects usually begin with a sad recounting of prolonged entitlement processes and battles with angry NIMBYs resistant to change. The only double Grand Award winner this year, the Simonini Builders' project in Charlotte, N.C., was a hit with neighbors who were grateful to...
Before it became an award-winning apartment complex, this steep hillside site in San Francisco seemed unbuildable. "It was the site of a massive landslide earlier in the [20th] century," notes architect Alex Seidel.
A skillful reinterpretation of the traditional Craftsman-style vernacular, mixed with a splash of contemporary elements, this custom home garnered a Grand Award for thoughtful execution inside and out. Instead of leaving a conventional empty front yard, Brewster positioned the house and the garage...
Michael Caito remembers when he'd drive past the wooded area that linked Cleveland's Little Italy and Cleveland Heights neighborhoods. But when his firm, City Architecture, was tapped to design a project for the site, Caito and firm principal Paul Volpe rose to the challenge.
This striking beachfront concrete home drew the admiration of judges for its "brutal" beauty and flawless attention to simple, stark form. "Most of the homes in the area are wood frame but fairly eclectic," notes architect David Hibbert, "so we had no real opposition from neighbors.
When the developers of Santaluz presented builder Bill Watt with the notion of 10 eight-unit clusters on prominent ridgelines throughout the master plan, he was thrilled.
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From clusters to duplexes to multifamily to infill, the common thread among this year's 59 winners is high density. Beginning with 2002, there will be a Home of the Year as well as a Project of the Year.
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If you can "Ask Jeeves" to instantly provide the most trivial information, why does it take so long to generate a weekly sales and marketing report? While this article focuses specifically on CRM applications, the following steps could be tailored to the selection of any type of software.
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The Peninsula Housing & Builders Association (Williamsburg, Va., Chapter) won Virginia's first Home Builders Care Outstanding Community Leadership Award in Hot Springs, Va., in August.
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In July, we decided to get perspectives on home prices directly from single-family builders, so we conducted a survey of about 300 builders from all regions of the country.We first asked builders about recent and expected home price movements in their markets, and the results were broadly...
Builders nationwide are finding that costs for general liability insurance are soaring.To help solve the problem, the NAHB is urging state legislatures across the country to work with builders to pass legislation that will ensure that builders have an opportunity to fix a problem before being...
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- NAHB to hold Traditional Neighborhood Design seminar and project tour in Charleston, S.C.
- New active-adult housing developments generate substantial economic benefits for local communities, according to an NAHB study.
- Remodelers remain positive about current business conditions, but...
You work hard in the heat and the cold, so the last thing you need is for your tools to act up. And who needs heavy tools that make work harder than it already is? Tool manufacturers feel your pain, which is why a good portion of their research and development efforts has been dedicated to offering...
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For a year, consumers have tossed life preservers to a storm-tossed economy. "Despite the declines in consumer confidence, it's still at a level that supports spending," says Lynn Franco, director of the Consumer Research Center at the Conference Board, a research organization in New York that...
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Everyone in the home building business has heard of, if not dealt with, NIMBYs--the not-in-my-backyard crews opposed to new development. According to the report, "Workforce Housing: The New Economic Imperative?"
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Some Indian reservations have loosened restrictions on residential development by third parties in recent years. But a building moratorium on the Tulalip (two-lay-lip) reservation in northwest Washington state suggests that one aspect of the "American Dream" has deeply colored this tribe's view of...
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But now last spring's high stock prices have produced something not so pleasant: an increased scrutiny of stock sales by executives of these same builders, which reached unusually high levels this year.How high? According to Steven Huddart, an associate professor of accounting at Pennsylvania State...
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Next time you finish a custom or semi-custom house, and you're staring at a barren, hard-packed surface that needs to be turned into a lawn, you might want to consider another option: machine-made golf greens. These elemental hairpieces start at about $3,000 installed, with a 250-square-foot green...
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It goes without saying that if your people keep your customers happy, those customers will be more apt to recommend your company to their friends. Centex Homes has found that the best way to get employees focused on customer satisfaction is to give them a direct financial stake.Walker Information...
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By BUILDER Magazine Staff. Add up the spec books, copies of blueprints, and reproducible Mylar floor plans required to bid and build just one 100-home community, and you quickly find yourself with a very large bill from the blueprint company--unless you run Amber Homes, which moved its blueprints...
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With the crash of WorldCom and Enron, the true cost of stock options has become a hot topic on the business pages. If the companies on the S&P 500 had been required to expense options, last year's profits would have been 19 percent lower overall than reported.For builders, though, the impact is...
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Consolidation continues with Centex Homes' purchase of The Jones Co.'s St. Louis and Indianapolis home-building operations. The deal merges DeWolfe with NRT's existing Coldwell Banker operations and creates a New England brokerage that accounted for a combined $13.9 billion in closed sales last...
To help solve the affordable housing shortage in Weston, Mass., Polly and Edward Dickson donated 11 acres now known as Dickson Meadows in 1997 and 1998. And that is part of what makes Dickson Meadows, an enclave of 18 homes that includes eight affordable units, such a success.
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When BUILDER surveyed providers and buyers of community intranets, we found that while fees for large master planned communities are fairly consistent, providers differ in how they slice costs, what they include, and whether they provide hosting. Playa Vista, a 1,000-acre development near Los...
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Solar energy looked poised for a revival during California's electricity crisis last year, but when the crisis passed, interest in the alternative power source seemed to follow it. In late June, Clarum Homes in Palo Alto, Calif., announced that it would make solar electric power a standard feature...
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Leonard Miller, co-founder of Miami-based Lennar Corp., died July 28 at the age of 69.
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Kimball Hill Homes has a new president and COO: Isaac Heimbinder, former president and co-CEO of U.S. Home prior to its 2000 merger with Lennar.
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Home prices just keep getting higher, but buyers may get harder to find, according to a new report from HomeGain real estate service (www.homegain.com). According to HomeGain, the poor performance of the stock market has boosted demand for investment homes among boomers, who see real estate as a...
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Can you believe all the attention popular media have lavished on the mere potential for a collapse in real estate values?The debate started with a report by Ian Morris of HSBC Securities USA.
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By BUILDER Magazine Staff. Always dark and sometimes damp, HVAC ducts can breed mold, mildew, and a menagerie of nasty organisms ranging from Legionella to e-coli. Now the Middletown, Ohio-based AK Steel thinks it has a solution: self-cleaning ducts.
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The typical structured wiring system consists of Category-5 or -5e twisted pair wiring for data and phone networking, along with RJ6 coaxial cable for video. The DiLan system, made by ITT Industries, uses Category-5e wiring and an RJ45 telephone-type jack to deliver data, voice, and video to each...
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By BUILDER Magazine Staff. No builder can predict every spot where homeowners might want low-voltage outlets. It's designed to work with standard outlet covers and could be a good choice for home offices or other candidates for future wiring changes.
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This June, the Home Plug Powerline Alliance (www.homeplug.org) released its long-awaited standard for powerline carrier (PLC) technology, in which electrical wires are used for digital data. Now the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) (www.CE.org) has jumped into the fray.