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The statistics speak for themselves: Eighty percent of people who shop for a home do so on the Internet. When those 80 percent walk into a builder sales center, they already know the who, what, when, where, and why of the community. What's more, they are twice as likely to buy compared with...
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During the last six months of 2006, builders in the Orange County, Calif., market were seeing cancellation rates of between 30 percent and 50 percent, according to Jared Miller, director of sales for John Laing Homes South Coast division. So far this year, this division's number is closer to 20...
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Beazer Homes USA confirmed on Wednesday that it had received a request from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte, N.C., for documents "generally related to its mortgage business," Beazer Mortgage. That subsidiary of the Atlanta-based builder was the subject of a scathing four-part series of...
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The Florida HBA won an important round in its fight challenging the constitutionality of the inclusionary zoning ordinance the city of Tallahassee passed in spring 2005 when a circuit court judge denied the city's motion to dismiss the trade group's complaint against the city.
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Sales of new single-family homes fell 3.9% in February to their lowest level since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The drop surprised Wall Street, which sank into a broad selloff shortly after the news was released, with most of the...
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Fresh on the heels of a 2.9% jump in the National Association of Realtors existing homes sales data for February, the Florida Association of Realtors Friday afternoon reported a 23% drop in sales of existing single-family homes compared with last February but a 14.9% increase from January 2007. (BB...
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The National Association of Realtors reported Friday that existing home sales rose 3.9% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.69 million, the strongest gain since March of 2004. Coming on top of what NAR called "healthy" gains in January, the new data suggests the housing market is...
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Mar. 23, 2007: Al Gore's solar-home dream is caught up in red tape; Fannie Mae predicts a 7 percent to 8 percent drop in new-homes sales; and the best home building Web sites trends are announced. BUILDER Online catches you up with the news you might have missed.
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KB's revenue was down 19% to $1.77 billion, compared to the first quarter of 2006. There was a 16% decrease in unit deliveries to 6,655 from 7,905 and a 5% drop in average selling price to $261,400 from $276,200. Net income was down sharply, falling 84% to $27.5 million from last year's $173.3...
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James O'Leary, Beazer Homes USA's vice president and chief financial officer, resigned March 21 to become president and chief executive officer of Kaydon Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of custom-engineered products. The resignation is effective March 23, but O'Leary, 44, has agreed to...
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One priority is maintaining the growth of the sizzling grilling segment. "With state-of-art grills, the latest technology, and must-have accessories, manufacturers are bringing a whole new meaning to grilling," says Leslie Wheeler, director of communications for the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue...
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By William Gloede– In an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, New Century said that "the company and its subsidiaries are no longer able to sell mortgage loans directly to Fannie Mae or act as the primary servicer of any mortgage loans for Fannie Mae." The termination by Fannie...
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SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- David W. Berson, chief economist for Fannie Mae is predicting a drop of 7 percent to 8 percent in new-home sales for the remainder of 2007 but says the worst declines have passed. Berson made his presentation Monday morning to more than 100 home building executives at the...
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The unexpected rise in housing starts came despite generally poor weather conditions in the Northeast and Midwest. Starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,525,000, up from the revised January estimate of 1,399,000 but 28.5 percent below the February 2006 rate of 2,132,000...
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For more than two decades BUILDER has enlisted top builders and residential architects to judge our most prestigious competition. With each passing year, the level of quality and innovation increases, thus raising the bar ever higher in this exclusive contest.
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Unlikely Allies: Dan Wiggins, (far left) of Mercedes Homes in Orlando, Fla., at a Realtor luncheon used to introduce agents to one of Mercedes' newer communities. Each attendee receives gifts, prizes, and information on the quality and design benefits of the new homes.
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About a year ago, Victor B. MacFarlane, founder of MacFarlane Partners and primary gatekeeper of billions of residential real estate investment dollars from the fat California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) pension fund, dropped by to see Emile Haddad, Lennar Corp.'s mega California...
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Frustrated with waiting for home buyers to come back on their own? The HBA of Metro Orlando, Fla., put together a million-dollar TV and multimedia advertising campaign designed to knock indecisive would-be buyers off the fence and into new houses.
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It was rebate tracking that gained HomeSphere a toehold in the builder supply chain management market. Builders, looking for ways to cut home building costs, seized onto the company's programs that track and negotiate rebates, boosting HomeSphere's business by 30 percent yearly over the past few...
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Fellows who quite clearly are going to the top in business sometimes have to go someplace else to get there. That's the way it's worked three times out of four at The Ryland Group–from the 30-something huckster and Pittsburgh native who breathed first life into the company in 1967 to the long-time...