A debate about oriented strand board (OSB) and plywood has significant relevance that affects your business.
What builders choose to do after their non-compete agreement ends is very much a function of age.
The vast majority -- 88 percent -- of builders surveyed said that their customers are more design conscious than buyers five years ago.
Within the next three years, builders will expand their use of the Internet and wireless technology to create valuable relationships with customers.
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Experts blame material cost increases on the convergence of rapid global growth, unbalanced trade tariffs, and localized disasters.
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Builders who, until recently, bought only finished lots have started development arms to capture the middleman costs, while others have begun to hire employees who are devoted to hunting for ground.
Behrokh Khoshnevis, a professor at the University of Southern California, has a vision for our industry that will stop the heart of even the most tech-savvy home builder: Khoshnevis plans to use a robot to build a single-story, 500-square-foot home in one day.
At the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show, many manufacturers unveiled prototype products and ideas that indicate slower but steady advancement into the future.
many forward-thinking builders and architects are actively pursuing projects that revolve around an edgier set of buzzwords: Affordable. Urban Infill. Green/Energy-Efficient. Nature. Good design is a consistent theme across the board.
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THE FUTURE IS AS EXHILARATING AS IT IS frightening. In a few short years, builders will offer bathrooms with Internet connections built into the mirrors, letting homeowners check the weather and plan their day before they leave for work in the morning. Wireless technology like Ultra-Wideband will...
The story of La Costa illustrates the difficulties of development in a hot market such as San Diego and the mixed blessing it can be for builders.
Today's sophisticated consumer is not only asking about frills such as mood lighting to softly illuminate a home theater but also about enhancements for the kitchen and security-based features.
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Spyware Alert!
The message is clear: Spyware is a threat to all industries and home PC users, and home builders are not immune. If anything, builders are more at risk, since so many builders don't always put computers issues on the front burner. Here's how to fight the spyware plague.
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The message is clear: Spyware is a threat to all industries and home PC users, and home builders are not immune. If anything, builders are more at risk, since so many builders don't always put computers issues on the front burner. Here's how to fight the spyware plague.
Minneapolis-based Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity adjusted its business plan when the scattered lots for its single-family homes began drying up.
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Florida has been in OSHA's "to do" spotlight lately.
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In 1992, Habitat for Humanity made international headlines when all of its houses in the path of Hurricane Andrew survived the storm. When Hurricane Charley hit Southwest Florida on Aug. 13, Habitat houses once again held up against the deluge. In Fort Myers, Habitat reported that only two of more...
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A report challenges the long-held belief that sustainable building costs significantly more than traditional construction.
A FIRE INDUSTRY COALITION IS USING A $600,000 grant from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to educate the home building industry on how installing fire sprinklers in new homes can reduce fire deaths.
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Maryland is taking a look at its real estate holdings and is thinking about selling some of its parcels. Earlier this year, the state hired Addison, Texas, real estate advisors Staubach Co. to catalog its assets and make suggestions on what to do with them. All together, the state owns almost 500...
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A Santa Fe, N.M., developer hopes to create what may be the first openly gay retirement community, aimed at the special needs and interests of gay men and lesbians. Rainbow Vision Santa Fe closed on a 12.7-acre parcel in the Santa Fe City limits last year and is now preselling and pre-leasing 146...
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More owners of Class B office buildings in Boston are touting their properties as the ideal investment for developers looking for residential conversion opportunities. A glut of office space and a need for more housing have created an environment in which developers can buy and convert former work...
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BIG CHANGES ARE UNDER WAY AT THE NATION'S 3,100 public housing agencies. A new rule is changing both the criteria by which they receive money and how they operate.
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Can carpentry and home renovation serve as a metaphor for rebuilding your life? That's the premise of Mark Clement's new novel, The Carpenter's Notebook. Clement, a first-time novelist and a fellow editor at Hanley Wood, hopes the book will appeal to the wide do-it-yourself movement, while...
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A J.D. Power and Associates poll ranked Pulte, one of the nation's biggest residential builders, No. 1 in customer satisfaction. The Bloomfield Hills, Mich.–based builder also ranked No. 1 in 14 of the 25 U.S. housing markets. Dallas-based Centex ranked No. 2.
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A Web-based training program that delivers weekly five-minute mini lessons to a salesperson's desktop.
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National builders moved to shore up their market share in both Washington and Jacksonville, Fla., at the end of the summer. Hovnanian Enterprises bought McLean, Va.–based Rocky Gorge Homes for an undisclosed amount of cash. Last year, Rocky Gorge delivered 79 homes with an average sales price of...
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The NAHB estimates that building a new home will cost $5,000 to $7,000 more starting this fall, due to the nationwide shortages of cement and other building materials such as steel frames, insulation, and gypsum wallboard. The median cost of building a new home is $210,000, according to the...
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Authorities in a Howard County, Md., circuit court recently turned to a chocolate Labrador–mix named Barney to solve a puzzle. Except Barney's case wasn't a crime: He helped them find mold lurking in the walls of the courthouse. Barney is one of dozens of canines trained in mold detection. A former...
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Legitimate builders and developers have been quietly investigating the potential post-hurricane opportunities in a county that lies between the higher-priced Sarasota and Naples markets.
Builders who can get a broadband connection installed in a sales model or a job trailer can use readily available equipment from companies such as Cisco and D-Link to provide a WiFi signal throughout a community.
Corrigo's warranty management module lets supers assign service requests in the field over the BlackBerry 7510 to in-house technicians or subs.
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The latest in builder technology - November 2004.
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With features built into Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft SharePoint Services 2003, the software giant has plugged into the next evolution of personal computing: collaboration that integrates a user's Microsoft Office applications with the Internet.