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Most anyone can relate to the longing of driving past a luxury car dealership and being tantalized by the shiny new model prominently displayed. But it takes seasoned promotional thinking to parlay that yearning into a way to move cancelled new home inventory. Fortunately, Kim Whitman, vice...
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Plus: Cement gets a run for its money from slag and ashes. / Green building reaches a tipping point.
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Parked in the lot of a closed Sonny's BBQ in Palm Bay, Fla., the SUV's A/C blasting beneath the already baking mid-morning sun, builder mystery shopper Karen M. readies her hidden video recorder and microphone and starts briefing me on our cover story.
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Us Against Them: Private home builders jumped out ahead of publics operationally in 2006 as publics put their balance sheets in order.
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After David and Roger Cohen figured out how to build whole houses in on-site neighborhood factories, they toiled for five or six years registering patents for parts of the process. The hard work was over, or so they imagined. Little did they realize that there remained the task of selling in the...
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Frank McGuyer is chairman, CEO, and co-founder of Houston?based, 19-year-old private McGuyer Homebuilders (MHI). Earlier in his career, McGuyer worked for one-time public home builder General Homes for about 14 years. Today, MHI operates exclusively in four Texas markets, posting a record 3,450...
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Cunard's flagship Queen Mary 2, more than a fifth of a mile long and weighing upwards of 150,000 gross tons, sports a height, length, and waterline breadth that surpass that of any other passenger ship in the world. Designed by owner Carnival's house architect Stephen Payne, the liner has 15...
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Inside: SEC filings tell a tale of how to buy a home building company. / EPDs make home builders fear for their balance sheets. / Division job cuts echo in home building-related industries.
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Plus: Land buying may have slowed nationally, but builders are still picking up tracts around Jacksonville, Fla.
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Volume builders abhor complexity. Complexity means problems, and problems lead to work orders, and work orders to increased costs. This is one reason big builders haven't rushed to embrace whole-house control systems that have flowed onto the market in the past several years (well, that and the...
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Whether it's a boom or a downturn, it's hard not to fixate on executive management's grand designs, far-reaching dilemmas, and big decisions. What's often underestimated, though, is how important small, everyday decisions are that each employee makes, and the impact those decisions have on the...
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As weather forecasters call for another active hurricane season this year, national home building company executives have to wonder whether the headwinds pounding the industry are getting stronger as well, leaving potential devastation in their wake. The laundry list of problems facing builders...
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After including $34.4 million in land-related impairments, the company lost $30.7 million, roughly in line with analyst expectations, but the impairments were a surprise.
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Rating firm keeps current "BB" on debt but warns that the company may have trouble meeting interest obligations later this year.
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Maker of photovoltaic panels releases research that indicates demand for solar energy systems is widespread when upfront costs are reduced and energy savings emphasized.
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Minutes of the May meeting of the Open Market Committee show the Fed, while concerned about a slowdown in consumer spending and the housing slump, believes controlling inflation remains paramount.
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Citing the state of the housing market, the company said it will combine 11 divisions into others and hopes to save $200 million by yearend.
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If regulatory approval is granted, the UK-based deal would create the 15th-largest U.S. home builder.
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Analysts were expecting earnings decline, but several are concerned with land inventory and the possibility of future impairments.
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The Conference Board's Index for May suggests a period of slow growth despite higher gasoline prices and the slowdown in housing.