2004 Housing GIANTS Rising Tide
If you're searching for melancholy, look up one of the Giant 400 home builders who sold his company two or three years ago. Unquestionably, he'll tell you he had reason to believe the market was at its peak — the very best time to cash out. But now he's looking at the recent performance of his peers and realizing, if he stayed in the business, he'd have the same money and he'd...
Top 10 Things to Ask in Interviews
The Sharrow Group, a Rochester, N.Y.-based executive search firm specializing in the housing industry, has created a quick checklist of questions a builder should ask prospective management hires during interviews:
Desert Beauty
West of the Agua Fria River, in part of Phoenix's West Valley, Vistancia stands quietly, respecting the land and natural history of the desert around it. In Terracina, a gated T.W. Lewis community, and one of the 11 neighborhoods in Vistancia, lies Triana. Triana became the best-selling model for Tempe, Ariz.
Home Ownership Gaps Signal Untapped Minority Market
Recent research at the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California shows persistent racial gaps in U.S. home ownership rates. However, that bad news has a good side: there's an untapped market, especially in America's cities, for new housing targeted to minorities. The research also shows these prospective buyers have not only the will to purchase homes, but the money, ...
PATH Tutorial Townhouses
Build a home — start to finish — in three weeks, and complete the site work in just six days? This was just one of several challenges for Nationwide Custom Homes, the modular home builder behind the PATH Tutorial Townhouses at the International Builders' Show in Orlando this January. Built by Nationwide in partnership with Professional Builder, the matching townhouses were designed ...
Top 50 Builders to Work For / 2004
Whoever said charity begins at home was one-upped last October 3 when millions of Americans watched crews from Shea Homes donate thousands of dollars in time, resources and labor to build a new house for the Garay family of Los Angeles on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. When HomeAid America and ABC offered Shea CEO Bert Selva the opportunity, he says he "couldn't say no" to helping this n...
Lennar takes it all
With Orange County known as a land-limited area for building, the auction of the four-parcel property of El Toro — a famous Marine Air Station — has been a big deal for builders because of its implications on land development. Sold during an online auction held by the Defense Department, the final bid came in at $649.
Mixed-Use in Your Future?
At the recent Midwest Builders Show in Chicago, Norman W. Nagel, CPA, a partner with Warady & Davis LLP, told a builder audience the scarcity and price of land, and difficulty getting entitlements, are factors leading many Chicago area residential builders to seek opportunities in mixed-used projects.
Landing an Award
The influx of baby boomers into retirement age is making senior housing one of the biggest market segments in the industry. In January, the Seniors Housing Council of the National Association of Home Builders presented the "Best of Seniors Housing Design" awards in Orlando, Fla. This award program honors communities across the country that best meet the needs of senior homeowners.
Tool Chest for Marketers
A new book from marketing communications agency Partners+Simons is a must-read for marketing professionals wanting to grow their brand and drive demand. The firm's Marketing Tool Chest: Developing Brand and Generating Demand in the New Era of Accountability is compiled from interviews with more than 100 top marketing officers from some of the nation's most successful companies.
