According to the Wall Street Journal, “Home builders, who aren’t selling too many homes these days, appear to be using their downtime to sharpen quality and service.” It makes sense. Without the housing boom engine powering sales, builders all over the country have to re-tool their plans. Of course, we’re not saying that a few [...]

Home Builders Likely to Consolidate, Merge WSJ Developments Blog “The likelihood of acquisitions among the public homebuilding companies has increased for five reasons. New home sales are slow and not recovering; executives sound discouraged on earnings calls; builders are focusing on grabbing market share; general economic outlook, especially for job growth, has gotten worse; and [...]

The Mortgage Mess’s Dirty Details Smart Money “The housing crisis is far from over. U.S. house prices remain about 30% below their mid-2006 peak. More than 3% of mortgage holders are in foreclosure, and another 9% are at least 90 days late on their payments.” Connect the Lots Big Builder “As the housing market fell, [...]

The Web is full of valuable information about green building, home improvement, the housing market and first hand homebuilding experience and more. Today, we thought we would weed through some of those resources to compile a list of some of our favorites. No list like this could be comprehensive, but you should find some of [...]

Two recent articles from Twin Cities-based news site MinnPost have focused on the future of the urban landscape — on the suburban one, too. The first viewpoint comes from Richard Florida, author of the book “The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity.” In a nutshell, he believes that when [...]

The New Remodeling Rules WSJ – Personal Finance “According to an April 15 report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, annual spending on remodeling is expected to accelerate this year, with nearly 5% growth over 2009. This year could produce the first annual spending increase for the industry since 2006, the [...]

The Home-Buyer Tax Credit May Have Actually Worked Developments Blog by WSJ “Did the last round of the home-buyer tax credit have a bigger impact than analysts had previously anticipated? When it comes to new home sales, the answer may be yes. Consider that U.S. existing home sales ran at an estimated seasonally adjusted rate [...]

Although recent reports still categorize the housing market in its entirety as sluggish, primarily due to high unemployment and foreclosures, the second-home market is beginning to show increased signs of life. From Palm Beach, Fla. to Big Sky, Mont., on a lake, on the beach or in a secluded golf community, people are making purchases. [...]

Economist: Housing Crisis to Linger for Years Detroit Free Press “The housing market won’t hit bottom until the third quarter and a true turnaround in new home-building is not foreseen until 2013, key economists said today.” Is bulldozer the best option for some boom-time housing? Local Address Blog by the Washington Post “Douglas Duncan, vice [...]

In the past year or so, we’ve seen remodeling rise up to take a greater prominence in the building world. With the economic challenges and the building industry reeling, more and more homeowners are remodeling. Why? A combination of factors: With houses not selling, people are staying put and upgrading what they have. But this [...]