Low Impact A Florida circuit court in January awarded Pulte Homes $1.16 million for impact fees it paid to cover school construction in Osceola County. Pulte, which paid the fees upfront and did not pass them along to its home buyers, had sued the county over its procedures for refunding the fees. The refund was made necessary when in 2005 a judge invalidated part of an earlier 240 percent impact-fee increase. The Orlando Sentinel reports that as many as 860 buyers of Pulte homes failed last year to petition the county for their partial refund, which shows that “they implicitly agree that this is Pulte's money,” the company's attorney asserted.—J. Caulfield
Inventory Sale Builders looking to get out from under pricey inventory build-ups must be more aggressive in liquidating finished units, according to a report from Wachovia Capital Markets. Though gross inventories are declining (down to 545,000 in November 2006 from an all-time peak of 573,000 units in July 2006), the number of completed new unsold homes hit an all-time high of 169,000 units in November. Finished inventory, which Wachovia estimates costs three times as much to carry as unfinished, now makes up 31 percent of the inventory total, the highest mark since February 1998. With Wachovia projecting a dip in the adjusted home building operating margin from 8.6 percent in 2006 to 5.2 percent in 2007, home builders will need to sell off finished and unsold inventory to keep their operating margins up.—E. Butterfield
SOURCE: WACHOVIA CAPITAL MARKETS
Flex Muscle When home buyers are on the fence about which house to buy, it's often a special function room that snags the swing vote. Which floor plan extras are winning the most kudos these days? Rising gas prices and telecommuting habits seem to be exerting some influence. Home offices topped the list in the latest AIA Home Design Trends survey (49%), followed by home theaters (21%), fitness rooms (6%), hobby/game rooms (6%), au-pair/in-law suites (4%), and child or guest wings (4%).—J. Sullivan
VOW Challenged A federal judge recently rejected a motion from the National Association of Realtors to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed against it by the Department of Justice. The department filed suit in September 2005, challenging NAR rules that allow traditional brokers to limit Multiple Listing Service access for customers of Internet-based brokers using virtual office Web sites, or VOWs. The lawsuit claims the rules keep consumers from getting the full benefits of competition and allows traditional brokers to discriminate against other brokers based on their business model.—P. Curry
Noisy Neighbors An Albuquerque, N.M., couple is suing home builder RayLee Homes, charging the builder with selling in excess of 50 percent of its homes in the Sundoro South subdivision to primarily out-of-state investors, many of whom rented to transients who brought down the neighborhood's quality of life with loud parties and rude behavior. The couple, Ben and Christine Brooks, alleges that the builder promised to sell no more than 10 percent of the neighborhood's homes to investors. The Brooks moved into their new home last summer.—S. Zurier
SOURCE: ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE
Out of Reach The cost of affordable rental housing has risen 28 percent in the past seven years, far outpacing the wages of those who need it most. “Out of Reach,” the annual report of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), found that housing affordability is most difficult for minimum-wage earners but is also tough for those who earned the median hourly wage ($14.57) in 2005. In 2006, what the NLIHC calls the “national housing wage” rose to $16.31 for a two-bedroom rental, from $15.78 in 2005.—N.F. Maynard
SOURCE: CNNMONEY.COM
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Learn more about markets featured in this article: Orlando, FL.
