Builders Roll With Punches; They See Some Silver Linings In Dark Economic Clouds; Planners See... Associate Editor This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it It's actually been a pretty good year for Larry Wisdom's company, Keystone Custom Homes, which built and sold about as many homes in 2008 --300 - as it did in 2007. And if you think the status quo is nothing to get excited about, you haven't paid much attention to the national housing market lately. The market continues to struggle; locally, home sales in Lancaster County are down about 23 percent so far this year. And while the housing crunch has had a... Read More   McStain to shut headquarters Louisville home builder joins others trying to survive in tough market McStain Neighborhoods is closing its Louisville headquarters at the end of the month and postponing construction in two communities in a move that may help the Colorado company stave off bankruptcy. McStain, started in part by a husband and wife team in the 1960s, is the latest area home builder getting whipsawed by the terrible housing market. Village Homes, the biggest locally owned home builder in the metro area, last week filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Read More   A Teacher in Private Equity Land; Right when business looked bleak, Michael shed some... A little over 2 years ago I woke up one morning and realized my mergers and acquisition consulting business was dead. I had successfully orchestrated more than 85 transactions for buyers and sellers during the previous 10-year chapter of my life. It was time to come to grips with the fact those doors had slammed shut and wouldn't be reopening for quite some time. I decided I needed to reinvent myself once again and create a new niche if I were to continue working with home builders to... Read More   Glimmer of Hope in Florida; A supply and demand equilibrium: Could it be true? One builder reports. Here's a little silver lining to the clouds over Florida: One builder believes the housing market in Southwest Florida is now at supply/demand equilibrium, and he's putting his money behind that contention by opening two new projects. Read More   Success Stories; It's time for some good news. Here are a few examples of home builders who thrive. There's a lot of bad news about our industry and the economy, and the casual observer might assume the majority of home builders are headed for bankruptcy protection. While that is indeed happening, most builders aren't hitting the bottom. Despite high inventories and falling home values, some builders have been quick to respond to market forces and remain quite profitable. They are not only surviving, they are thriving. Of course, there has been some modification to what it means to succeed... Read More   Builders making no big plans for 2009 It's not that home builders aren't counting down the days until the end of 2008, one of the more miserable years in recent memory for the industry. It's just that they aren't sure 2009 will be any better. There are too many variables, too many uncertainties tied to unemployment, the credit markets, the rising number of foreclosures and the government's bailout plans. Builders large and small are just too unsure of their businesses -- and the overall economy -- to embrace Daniel Burnham's motto... Read More   Courts rule in favor of Kara Homes. In Michael J. Wright Construction Co., Inc. v. Kara Homes, Inc., and Kara at Hawkins Ridge, LLC, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey affirmed a United States Bankruptcy Court judgment in favor of Kara Homes, Inc., and its affiliates. Ben H. Becker, Esq., of the Livingston, N.J.-based law firm Becker Meisel LLC, represented the appellee in the action; Lauren E. Hannon, Esq. assisted in writing the appellee brief. Read More   Measure Your Listening Skills; Learn how to measure if you are really hearing what's important to.. Every sales professional knows that listening is the key to great salesmanship. But how good are your listening skills? When I ask most salespeople this question, the answers typically range from "pretty good" to "excellent." But are you really sure? Can you really measure how well you hear what a customer is looking for? Read More   Essential Loyalty; Avid Award winners leverage customer loyalty to survive the housing slump. Whether you're selling more homes than you can reasonably build or struggling to get rid of high inventories, nothing sustains a business better than a cadre of delighted customers who loyally send new home buyers your way. Industry research proves that it's twice as hard to sell a home to a regular prospect as it is to sell one to a referred home buyer. This fact alone - especially in light of the current downturn in the market - should be enough to convince every builder to reevaluate and... Read More   Develop Land or Buy Lots?; It's an easy question in the short run. But can you really make... Even with the primary focus on surviving the cataclysmic housing market, in the back of every production builder's mind is a troubling concern: what strategy will assure an adequate supply of building lots for the next few years (when lots are bound to be plentiful and terms easy in most markets) and when the lot supply tightens again five years from now? It's a big worry because in some markets, it takes three to five years to plan, entitle and develop a parcel of ground. And most builders... Read More

More... CENTEX Homebuilder shrinks losses Hovnanian bargains with bondholders Despite what you see, builders are hurting Poconos mortgage suit set for February; Lawsuit alleges 100 buyers defrauded by bank and builder.

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