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The terms “design” and “modular homes” are rarely uttered in the same sentence. But modular manufacturers say they're finally trying to upgrade the look of their houses to lure more buyers.
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By William Gloede– Associated Builders and Contractors in Washington came out strongly against a proposal to be taken up by the House of Representatives on Thursday that would allow voting in union elections to be observed by coworkers and union representatives. (BB News)
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By William Gloede– Lennar Corp. completed a land deal today that will eventually net the company some $600 million in cash in return for selling a share in its LandSource Communities joint land venture to MW Housing Partners, a pension-fund backed entity managed by MacFarlane Partners. (BB News)
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By William Gloede– Sales of new single-family homes in January plummeted to their lowest levels since February, 2003, the Commerce Department reported. Sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 937,000, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and...
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By William Gloede– Home Depot will tell attendees at its annual investor and analyst conference that it does not expect a recovery in residential construction and the overall housing market until late this year or early next. (BB News)
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By William Gloede– K.Hovnanian projected that it will beat its own first-quarter estimates handily when it announced Tuesday that it expects to report earnings of $0.20 per share for the fiscal first quarter ended January 31. That could double the company's guidance of $0.05 to $0.10 per share. –...
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By William Gloede– "Challenging," the word most favored by CEOs to describe the current home market, fell so far short of explaining WCI Community's 2006 performance that CEO Jerry Starkey had to add "extremely" in front of it during Tuesday's fourth-quarter and year-end conference call. – (BB News)
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By William Gloede– The 3% increase in sales of existing homes reported by the National Association of Realtors the morning of February 27 is being viewed as relatively good news by financial markets: at least sales did not plummet, and falling prices could help draw down inventories. But concerns...
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For Dan Fulton, still waters run deep. The CEO of Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Co. (WRECO) considers it part of his professional compact to keep his passions and fears to himself. With one exception: Safety. In a business where high-rises, high finance, high velocity, high-risk acquisitions, and...
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George Nelson moved into his role as Toll Brothers' first chief information officer (CIO) three-and-a-half years ago. Life sure seemed much simpler then. In a sense, though, 2003 marked the tail end of IT's halcyon days–high on promise, but somewhat iffy when it came to delivering on all those...
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What do a 60-year-old sales journeyman and a 22-year-old former aspiring elementary school teacher have in common? Call it confidence. Or maybe, in a less generous instant, it might be described as mulish optimism. Whichever you choose, management at Engle Homes, the Phoenix brand of parent company...
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What started out as a personal affinity for wines parlayed into a creative partnership that gives John Laing Homes an opportunity to distinguish itself in the wine-obsessed Northern California market. As president of John Laing Homes' San Francisco Bay Area region, Roger Menard is no stranger to...
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In some windowless room in Orlando, Fla., during the International Builders Show earlier this month, NAHB officials wooed lumber producers from Russia, Sweden, and Latin America, hoping to cement deals to import their wood products. The courting sessions are a sign that home builders are finally...
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There's a lot more to Seattle than Starbucks, Microsoft, and the McDreamy doctors of the hit TV show, Grey's Anatomy. A healthy housing market, significant job growth, and no excess inventory to burn off, the region appears to have everything going for it, everything that is except for available...
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In a land deal that local housing experts say exceeds $50 million, a prime piece of property on the north side of Houston is now a Texas two-step closer to its future life as a master planned community.
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David J. Borreson is CEO and founder of Peachtree Residential Properties, a 19-year-old privately held Atlanta-based company with 276 closings and $126 million in revenue last year. Peachtree was the 11th biggest builder in the crowded Atlanta market in 2005, based on revenue, and the fifth ranked...
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You're not alone. The Viacom-owned CBS television network, after all, reportedly had to discount its commercial airtime by about $20,000 a second to sell out its inventory for this month's Super Bowl XLI. Net of the 23-percent discount and a 15-percent standard agency commission, that left a mere...
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About a year ago, a number of companies in the digital home space signed on with Z-Wave. Developed by Zensys of Fremont, Calif., the wireless radio frequency (RF) networking protocol promises to allow communication between all kinds of devices. Leviton, the Long Island, N.Y.–based supplier of...
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The cuckoos are coming! Environmentalist activists are mobilizing with an aim to wrest billions of dollars away from their intended use – the California roads and infrastructure that voters approved in November 2006.