Given his success then, years ago, he was running Portland's top home building company, RMP Properties, closing almost 500 homes and grossing about $30 million annually. Then D.R. Horton came calling with the money Pollock thought he needed to grow the company into the regional powerhouse he'd...
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EDGY, CONTEMPORARY, AND VIBRANT are all words that describe Garden Crossing, a nifty 55-unit for-sale project on the burgeoning north side of Boulder, Colo. But there's another word, one that's red hot in the housing world these days, that also comes to mind.
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Most of the mills on Pittsburgh's South Side closed by the 1980s; since then, the neighborhood has reinvented itself as a hip place to live, shop, and dine, aided, perhaps, by the best view in town.
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IF YOU'VE BEEN TO BUILDER ONLINE lately, you're in good (and large) company: More than 105,000 unique users visited BUILDER Online last month.
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NICK MEIMA WAS FEELING INCREASINGLY isolated. "I had a growing sense that as I was working on my house, my yard, my driveway, that I was building a glass wall around my house."
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WITH CONDO MANIA IN FULL TILT, IT'S become evident to builders that the sales process doesn't mirror the process for a suburban, single-family detached neighborhood. From the product and the buyers to the marketing efforts and the phasing of sales, everything is different.
TOM NOON REMEMBERS LIKE it was yesterday when California's last housing boom stalled. After unheard-of sales and price growth throughout the 1980s, the state's housing bubble started leaking air in the spring of 1990 and deflated “pretty quickly,” says Noon, D.R. Horton's COO-California. The causes...
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For more than a decade, the housing industry has defied those clichés. Year after year, it has outperformed economists' projections.
THE CITY OF LA QUINTA, Calif., had plenty of golf courses. In fact, there were at least 30 within a 10-mile radius of the 20-acre parcel that would become Puerta Azul. What the area didn't have much of were resort-style homes for buyers wanting the option to lock and leave.
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FEW BUILDERS CAN COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RIDE THE housing market has taken them on during the last decade. At times, it's been almost as if speed limits haven't existed, as low interest rates, buyer demand, and price appreciation have combined to accelerate builders' growth well beyond their...
Packing more in 1,555 square feet than any other home in its price and size range, the modified, single-story Independence is offered in 18 of the Boise metro communities in which Pioneer Homes builds.
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WE ALL KNOW THAT HOME BUILDERS ARE actively engaged members of their communities. After all, we live in the communities we build.
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- The NAHB and Wells Fargo & Co. embark on a three-year relationship that extends and expands an initial package begun in 2004.
- The House of Representatives passes four bills aimed at easing OSHA burdens on small businesses.
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SOME HOME BUILDERS ARE FINALLY starting to move past offering only structured wiring as a standard digital feature, with programs at national and local builders now including home theater and whole-house audio systems in the product mix.
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ANY MANUFACTURER WITH A FINGER on the pulse of its customers knows that its products must adapt and evolve in order for the company to remain competitive.
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CHANGES THE U.S. CENSUS BUREAU made to the way it classifies residential construction companies helped the 2002 Economic Census data, released at the end of July, reveal several trends in home building.
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MASSIVE REDEVELOPMENT projects in Seattle and Los Angeles obtained key approvals recently. In Seattle, the city council in June approved a streetcar line from downtown to the South Lake Union area; private property owners along the 2.6-mile line will pay the majority of the cost.
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THE HOME DEPOT AND BUILDERS FIRST-Source, a top dealer to home builders, have pursued aggressive growth strategies in recent months.
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September 2005: This past spring, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced the launch of the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund, designed to help city workers—many of whom are required to live in the city—pay for housing costs. The fund will support down payments, mortgages, and rent payments for...
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THE CLOSET IS A PERPETUAL issue for Americans: Some can't seem to find enough space for their clothes, skis, and camping gear. Cincinnati-based Schulte Corp. has a solution for those caught in a closet conundrum: A Web-based design tool that allows consumers and builders to customize their space in...
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CALIFORNIANS MAY HAVE TO CONTEND WITH earthquakes, mudslides, and high housing prices, but they also have some of the healthiest cities in the country, a new study reports.
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State regulators in Oregon and the state's HBA have called for a study of the relationship between an increase in buyer complaints and defects cases and steep increases in liability insurance. The nine-member task force will include representatives of the construction and insurance industries and...
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CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS IN Columbia, Ill., are weighing a proposal that would require the exteriors of all new single-family homes built in Monroe County to be 75 percent clad in brick or stone. A vote is expected some time this month. The ordinance was introduced to “prevent Columbia from becoming a...
BRIAN BISHOP HAS BEEN BUILDING HOMES IN Florida for more than 20 years, but he'd never been through a hurricane until Charley slammed into the state's southwest side with 145-mph winds last year.
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Smart developers know how to sweeten an entitlement deal, all the while scoring an “A” for public goodwill. Shea Homes, Centex Corp., and Standard Pacific Corp. have pooled $73 million to build three public schools in RiverPark, a 700-acre traditional neighborhood development in Oxnard, Calif. As a...
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In an unusual form of eco-terrorism, activists allegedly planted an endangered species of wildflower to block a housing development in Santa Rosa, Calif. The state Department of Fish and Game says the flowers, known as Sebastopol meadowfoam, were deliberately transplanted. The 145-acre proposed...
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San Francisco Bay–area builder Affordable Housing Associates recently opened University Neighborhood, a rental project that the company claims has the first inclusive, affordable, and universally designed residential units in the nation. The project consists of 27 residential units that rent from...
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When Al Hoffman retired from his role as CEO of Bonita Springs, Fla.–based WCI Communities earlier this year, he told BUILDER, “I intend to have a lot of new projects.” In July, President Bush presented Hoffman, now chairman of WCI's board of directors, with an impressive project to help kick off...
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The Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawaii chose Castle and Cooke to develop a community of 492 affordable units on 20 acres in the Villages of Kapolei. The Los Angeles–based builder, which constructs more than half its homes in Hawaii, beat out three other companies—including D.R...
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In a recent survey of 1,802 baby boomers nationwide, nearly half of the respondents expressed a desire to retire no more than three hours away from family. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive for Del Webb.
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A recent NAHB survey finds that new-home buyers are overwhelmingly opting for higher-quality features rather than more space. When asked to choose between a bigger house with fewer amenities or a smaller house with high-quality products and amenities, 63 percent of the homeowners surveyed by the...
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HUD IS HOPING THAT THE RECORD $3.2 MILLION regulatory administrative settlement reached with KB Home Mortgage earlier this summer for alleged mortgage underwriting violations will be a warning to other builders that the government will not put up with those who don't follow the rules.
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PRINCIPAL GEOLOGIST THE SOURCE GROUP comments on front cover and some articles to the Jul.,2005 issue of health and safety.
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Comments on article from the Jul., 2005 issue ("Working Without a Net,” page 108).
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LOCATED ON A HILLSIDE BESIDE THE CITY AND ITS MARINA, San Diego's Little Italy is a delightful place. On this particular perfect summer day, you can hear the sound of an artist grinding metal in a studio across the street from a store that resells lofts and condos. Open-air restaurants bustle with...