PB January 2007

As soldiers made their way back home from World War II, the American family sprung into action. An increase in births from 1946 to 1964 created a population boom — known as the Baby Boom. The Baby Boom accounted for more than 76 million births in the United States during its 18-year run with the highest concentration of births occurring between 1957 and 1964.

The owner of Jagoe Homes talks about appliances, building material and softward solutions that they prefer.

It was the sexual revolution, and the home building industry wasn't left untouched — at least not if Practical Builder could help it. A 19-page feature in August 1967 called "Sex and the Single-Family Home" attempted to tackle how sex influenced — or failed to influence — builders' business decisions.

Included in this section are products from Grabber, Starrett, MGS and others

Battered by an energy crisis, record inflation, and high interest rates, the housing industry came through this 10-year period bruised but not beaten. Baby boomers came of age in the '70s and '80s and began forming households, renting apartments and buying homes. As a result, 1978 marked an all-time high for yearly housing starts — 2,020,300.

Included in this issue are products from Dietrich, Weyerhaeuser and others.

A deep-seated financial resource for home builders was uprooted like an oak tree in a Texas twister after the savings and loan industry was torn to shreds. The U.S. languished under the thunderstorm of a rolling recession that ultimately saturated the entire U.S. economy. But a silver lining in the clouds was waiting to be revealed.

As the home building industry becomes increasingly competitive, our attitude toward customer satisfaction will need to change. Whereas it used to be a major advantage to have satisfied customers, it is now a requirement. The best home builders create avid customers — a source of differentiation you need to thrive in the competitive market.

The last 10 years were all good years for the American housing industry. The unprecedented national housing market expansion that began in 1993 ended abruptly in the fall of 2005, but that 12-year housing boom made many builders wealthy. It also made a lot of home building companies large, especially at the top of PB's Giant 400.

This month's column focuses on the job seeker because the fraternity of unemployed in our industry is growing rapidly as the housing market declines.