Paul Deffenbaugh
I began my career in construction at 10 years-old by getting trapped in an excavated basement on a new home site. Since then, I’ve become a bit savvier about construction – which means I can usually find my way out of a hole.
In the mid 80s, I did historic restoration work as a carpenter in Fredericksburg, Virginia. To this day, I enjoy going back there to visit some of the work I did. During that time, I spent an entire summer rebuilding windows in a hotel built in 1825. There’s nothing like old dirt.
I’ve also built custom homes and done some light commercial work, but in the early 90s I got the opportunity to combine two of my passions – residential construction and writing. Since then, I’ve held a series of editorial positions at residential trade publications and now get to direct the editorial vision for the Reed Residential Group, which comprises Professional Builder, Professional Remodeler, Custom Builder, Housing Giants, and the HousingZone.com network of websites.
From this position, I get a great birds-eye view of residential construction and want to share some of what I see in this blog.
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Recent Posts
Hello Management, Your Sales Office Is Calling
Aug 4 2008 3:51PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (4) |
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Education – Please allow sales people time off to take classed offered by the NAHB. Up to four days per year helps keep the edge and – this
A Housing Giant Passes
Jul 30 2008 8:59AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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David Hill, one of the leading lights of the home building industry, passed away last Saturday. Dave founded Kimball Hill in 1969 and grew the company to be one of the largest privately held home building companies in the country.
There's little I can say about what a fine man Dave was that hasn't been said elsewhere. Here's a link to the Chicago Tribune obituary. Here. But for a truly wonder testament to him, read Bill Lurz blog entry. Here.
Home Price Drop Is Good for Builders
Jul 29 2008 12:48PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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While all of that seems like bad news, I think these are positive things for home builders. First, we know prices have to come down to bring buyers back. They won't go shopping if they think they can get a better deal next month, so let's get this thing bottomed out quick and get those buyers back quick!
Second, the rate of decline has begun to decrease since the steep drops at the beginning of the year. The first sign of a move to a recovery is the nega...Read More
Labor Productivity in Construction
Jun 6 2008 12:44PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (6) |
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Last week, I attended a 1-day conference by Hyphen Solutions in Irvine, Calif. The focus of the conference was to look at ways builders could improve the efficiencies of their supplier relationships so they can control costs. The typical way builders do this is by asking suppliers to cut costs, but that seems a horribly erratic way of achieving improved efficiency.
Ken Pinto, national purchasing program manager for Standard Pacific, displayed a chart that showed how productivity in construction labor has declined over time, which I've shown here. That, to me, was a real eye opener. While the chart is a little old -- the last year measured was 2004 -- the point is substantial. In comparison to every other sector of the U.S. economy, our little section of the world is becoming less productive. Ha...Read More
Daily Video Updates
Mar 28 2008 8:21AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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We just added a new function to HousingZone.com -- a daily video feed on the home page. Get the latest housing news from around the country through this feed we'll update every weekday morning. Whether it's national economic news reported on Bloomberg or a local report on what's happening in Mobile, Ala., you can track the news you want with these concise nuggets.
| Blogs | Recent Posts | Total Posts |
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| House Beat | 0 | 28 |

