The once red-hot Las Vegas housing market is now showing signs of a return to normalcy, proving once again that markets do work, if they are allowed to function. Larry Murphy, president of Sales Traq, a Las Vegas firm that tracks new housing production w
San Francisco Bay area's Ponderosa Homes showcases its Zero-Energy home — one of the home builder's newest options — at The Classics at Ironwood in Pleasanton, Calif., through an inviting "Green Gallery." The gallery, located
Crosswinds Communities, headquartered in the Detroit area, recently enjoyed huge success with a lottery that resulted in 49 home sales in one day in its 727-acre, award-winning master-planned community, The Sanctuary, in Ovieda, Florida. While most lotte
How are new home sales likely to fare in 2005? According to economists at the National Association of Home Builders' Construction Forecast in October, single-family production will set another record next year. However, says David Seiders, NAHB's
The lesson of the two Elizabeths is that as an industry we must begin to see salespeople in a holistic manner, as complete members of the team. It's no longer enough to simply bring in the bucks
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 po
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. Thir
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 — tha
The story of Dorothy's quest to meet the Wizard of Oz is analogous to what often happens in the world of personnel and executive recruitment. Working within process-bound organizations, we often journey down long and winding roads, only to have the e
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, no
