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February 2002

  • Hot Sellers: Walk This Way

    The one- and two-bedroom units are selling from $130,000 to $180,000, undercutting the competition, which sells from $210,000 to $229,000. "We're finding that the magic number is under $200,000," says developer Kevin Moats of Moats and & Associates.

     
  • Hot Sellers: Primrose Path

    Our buyers here were not what we call 'traditional' home buyers," says Dana Craig, director of marketing for Colonnade Homes in Denver. The Primrose plan also includes an attached, two-car garage.

     
  • Hot Sellers: Banking on Nostalgia

    An alley-loaded plan in a house of this size and price is new to the marketplace. Heretofore, Brookfield Homes had only used alley-loaded plans in entry-level houses.

     
  • Insure Survival

    If your broker doesn't care about its business, it is simply going to get what it can get with little effort spent to make certain [the policy cost] is the best price out there."

     
  • Toxic Awards

    Recent court settlements on mold lawsuits.$32.1 million awarded late last year to a Texas family by an Austin court for a case involving extensive mold damage.$1.5 million awarded to Texas homeowners for mold-related damages.

     
  • Lowe's Profit Rise 55 Percent in Q4

    Lowe's Companies Inc., the nation's second biggest home improvement retailer, said Monday its fourth quarter profit rose 55 percent, fueled largely by the eagerness of American consumers to invest more money in their homes.

     
  • Seasonally Adjusted New Home Sales Take a Plunge

    New home sales plunged 14.8 percent in January, declining at the fastest pace since 1994, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 823,000 came as surprise, especially in the wake of upward adjustments to the Census Bureau's November and December figures.

     
  • Home Depot Posts 53 Percent Rise in Q4

    The world's largest home improvement retailer said net income was $710 million, or 30 cents per share, up from $465 million, or 20 cents per share, in the same period of 2000.

     
  • America's Best Builders: The 2002 Vanguard

    What makes America's Best Builders winners? This anonymous aphorism certainly describes the 2002 group of America's Best Builders. Simonini Builders has found just the right business formula to tap the celebrity home market.

     
  • America's Best Builders: Steadied Course

    Stephen K. Hann remained cautiously optimistic but had already launched a series of business-boosting strategies--just in case.Carefully balancing risk and reward has grown Hann from a lone wolf custom builder partially funded by an angel investor to Stephen K. Hann Custom Builders with a robust...

     
  • Double Play

    Lennar's gain is Fortress' loss.Lennar made no secret that its 2001 goal was to move into the mid-Atlantic, so it did, with three late-year purchases that gave the builder strong positions in the Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., and Baltimore markets.Left in a weaker position was The Fortress Group...

     
  • Shrinking Suburbia

    Suburbia isn't swelling as it has in the past, according to the Brookings Institution and the University of Virginia. While suburbs grew from 1990 to 2000, population growth was uneven: 37 percent of 2,586 suburbs in the 35 largest metro areas lost population or remained stable. Small suburbs...

     
  • Pay to Stay

    New farm bill could slow development.Land suitable for development could be in even shorter supply if a new measure to keep farmers from selling their acreage succeeds. The Agriculture, Conservation, and Rural Enhancement Act would pay farmers to keep their land out of developers' hands.

     
  • Tanks, But No Thanks

    Prime sites remain out of reach as the specter of liability continues to hover over underground storage tanks.When the brownfields bill made it through Congress at the end of December, it ensured modest reform of the existing law. I say it's a matter of cross-purposes because while Congress was at...

     
  • Price Tags

    After lobbying Missouri state legislators for five years to get authority to implement development fees, Boone County's Commission took a new tack. The Boone County Smart Growth Coalition analyzed data and found that each new home in Columbia adds $30,177 in costs for new schools, roads and sewer...

     
  • Logistics-Friendly Cities

    Savannah, Ga., may be more well-known for its southern charm than its roads, but according to the editors of Expansion Management and Transportation & Distribution magazines, it's the most logistically friendly city in the United States. The editors found that the cities that scored the best...

     
  • Mixed Uses

    Asheville, N.C., is shifting from baby food to more sophisticated fare. Developers there are at work on plans for a 305,000-square-foot mixed use village on 24 vacant acres where a Gerber baby food factory once stood. The Village at Gerber features 465 multifamily units--the for-sale/rental mix is...

     
  • EPA Announces Transition from Consumer Use of Treated Wood Containing Arsenic

    By Jan. 2004, EPA will not allow wood products treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) for any residential uses. The move is a voluntary decision by the industry, the EPA announced in a press release.

     
  • Northwest Empty Nest

    The story-and-a-half Craftsman house is perfect in scale and style for an in-city Pacific Northwest neighborhood. "Each gets a private backyard and great public space out front."

     
  • Fast Facts: The New American Home

    Zoned for life: TNAH 2002 is a home focused on lifestyle. A move-up home as resort.

     
 

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