The New American Home 2024: Modern Features, Timeless Comfort
Explore the design elements and unique, luxe details that combine to create a sense of comfort and relaxed indoor/outdoor living in The New American Home 2024
4 Inspiring Adaptive Reuse Projects With Real Impact
From former schools to warehouses, these adaptive reuse projects—winners in the 2023 Best in American Living Awards—succeed in creating new housing and revitalizing their neighborhoods
Kid-Friendly Home Design Four Ways
Do your ‘family’ homes really deliver great design for parents and their children? Here are four clever home design ideas that consider kids and adults alike
4 Single-Family Build-to-Rent Home Designs Offering Comfort and Construction Efficiency
Single-family rentals are popular. Take a look at these detached-home design ideas for the single-family build-to-rent market, one of the fastest-growing segments of single-family construction
Are Agrihoods a Growth Opportunity?
Including a farm in your master plan isn’t just trendy, it also gives back
Attainable Housing Solutions (and More) at IBS 2024
A handful of homes at Pro Builder’s Show Village at IBS 2024 offer a path forward for providing high-quality, lower-cost housing nationwide
Local Leaders Lack Stately Vision
Peter S. Reinhart, senior vice president and general counsel for Edison, N.J.-based K. Hovnanian Cos., believes the ever-populous Garden State needs higher density zoning. But first, state planners must wrest power from municipal leaders, who lack the political will and courage to implement it. "If we continue to allow local authorities to make these decisions without consideration of overall s...
Public/Private Partnerships Pay
Public/private partnerships present a compelling win-win for builders of all sizes. When, for example, planners in Washington, D.C., wanted to replace a 1920s-vintage public school, they put out a request for proposals, but no bidders emerged — that is, until a restructured RFP allowed development of an apartment building on a 1.
The Affordable Zoning Paradox
Builders have long railed against inclusionary zoning, a popular municipal tactic that requires a number of homes in a new community be set aside for sale at below-market prices. Builders say it violates supply-and-demand common sense and yields less, not more, affordable housing. New research from the Los Angeles-based Reason Public Policy Institute bears them out.
San Francisco's $100,000 House
Clever Homes, a San Francisco construction-systems company that develops pre-fabricated homes partnered with Affordable Green Development and CNet Networks to unveil the "Now House," a 2,400-square-foot-house that cost a little over $100,000 to build and includes the latest electronic gadgetry. On display in the parking lot at SBC Park in San Francisco, the project demonstrates that affordable ...
Two of the Top 10
TimberSIL Nontoxic Pressure-Treated Wood: A sodium-silicate-based pressure-treatment system for wood that relies on a mineralization process rather than toxins to prevent infestations and decay. The patented chemistry and heat-treatment process result in the infusion of microscopic glass "crystals" throughout the wood, providing a permanent, insoluble treatment with no dusting or leaching.
Eucalyptus Hybrid Flooring
A hybrid eucalyptus tree, Lyptus is quickly becoming one of the world's most important hardwood lumbers, says manufacturer Weyerhaeuser, primarily because it represents a sustainable and renewable resource. In density, strength and technical properties, it compares favorably with hardwood maple, and it rivals cherry and mahogany in appearance.
Adjustable-Rate Mortgages
The good news out of the University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate is that experts there see no pricing bubble in the California housing market. The bad news is that they are concerned about current high use of adjustable rate mortgages — especially down the road, as more of these loans convert from fixed to adjustable rates.
Where is a Nexer to Go?
As we continue our focus-group research with the nexers, we've been hearing about their preferences for features and layout inside the home. The nexers have already provided us with a mountain of ideas that might motivate them to buy a new home. With so many possibilities on the table, we will work to zero in on the nexers' hot buttons with highly specific stimulus materials keyed to how they w...
Price Does Not Affect Profit
When we dig into the data from our most recent Builder Financial Study (the 11th consecutive survey of Lee Evans Group clients), we find house prices in 2003 ranging from $98,800 to $3.2 million, but no direct correlation of price and profitability. Thirty-eight percent of the builders had average sales prices under $200,000, 29.
Hiring and Retaining Employees
An employee leaving a company is like a stone thrown in a still pond: ripples of disruption spread through the organization, creating unbalance. In any business, this unbalance can be expensive. Turnover can cost a builder in recruiting and administrative fees, lack of attention to quality from employees on their way out, and slower productivity until new employees are up to speed.