The mood in the home building industry is officially glum. Buyers are playing a waiting game, and inventory isn't moving. Except in the case of that builder around the corner whose homes are being snapped up faster than free NFL tickets on Craig's List. What gives? More
July 13, 2007: After a six-year wait, Town & Country settles a lawsuit with The Rottlund Co.; the troubles of the mortgage market is causing a ripple effect on Wall Street; another public builder, D.R. Horton, is reporting big sales losses; and foreclosures are up 87 percent from June '06. BUILDER Online catches you up with the news you might have missed. More
It took nearly six years, but a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the Rottlund Co., against Town & Country Homes (a subsidiary company of Hovnanian Enterprises) and the architecture firm Bloodgood Sharp Buster Architects & Planners of Iowa Inc. settled for an undisclosed amount of money. Tuesday's settlement announcement comes just days before the case was going to be heard again for the third time in a courtroom. In an interview with BUILDER Magazine, Rottlund Homes' attorney Craig Krummen, a shareholder at the Minneapolis law firm Winthrop & Weinstine, explained how this settlement sets a new legal precedent. More
Orland Park Crossing, 30 miles southwest of Chicago, has lots of what its target... More
Neighborhoods used to be built this way. Back in the day, at the turn of the... More
When markets turn soft, things get interesting. With housing starts correcting to... More
IT'S AN OLD STORY IN HOME BUILDING: One builder's disaster becomes another's dream... More
THE MCMANSION IS dead! Long live the Jewel Box! Or so the housing industry tea leaves read to those looking beyond the next gated community. Whether driven by rising construction costs, shrinking lot sizes, increased urban infill, or aging baby boomers demanding high style in smaller footprints, the average size of a new home is holding steady at 2,400 square feet ... and is expected to pretty much stay there through the next decade. More
WHY IT WORKED: With units starting at 2,107 square feet, the Georgian-style... More
