| Professional Builder Giant 400 |
Valuable building sites are coming back on the market at reduced prices. Big winners will use them to capitalize on this housing down cycle, just as others have in the past.
With HUD-code housing in a decade-long funk, manufacturers are gearing up to partner with traditional home builders by producing modules that are assembled on-site.
Sign of a slump: Giants now selling more undeveloped land than serviced lots.
Builders in last year's Giant 400 hit profit benchmarks that may last.
Fast-growing, innovative companies can be found even in markets that really suck.
Texas builders are climbing the Giant 400 rankings, especially when they don't venture too far outside their home state.
The housing downturn that engulfed the largest builders in 2006 left others, especially in Texas and North Carolina, relatively untouched. As a result, Professional Builder's 2007 Giant 400 rankings are remarkably scrambled from those of a year ago.
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| Best Practices |
Can production process improvement push past finance and marketing in home builders’ priority list? Columnist Scott Sedam ponders this and more in his column.
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| Plans and Projects |
Contributing Editor Ann Matesi examines what makes LivingHomes’ prefabricated home in upscale Santa Monica, Calif., a model for green building with modular homes.
Tuscan-inspired Armandwilde, a new gated community of in Clear Lake City, Texas, caters its three-story townhomes to Houston’s burgeoning market of active empty-nester buyers who want less space and maintenance but crave custom comforts.
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| Innovations |
Money drives nearly every decision in home construction, including location, design, labor and materials. Money is also a reason builders should consider geothermal heat pumps
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| Business of Building |
Falling new-home sales kept permits and starts near the low point for this building cycle despite better home-buying conditions.
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| Perspective |
I am a member of a group that in some quarters is viewed with the same distrust as a gang: the media. We are renowned for nosiness and invasion of privacy. We are one more example of the decline of civilized society. This was brutally proved on the campus of Virginia Tech University after the horrific shootings by a deranged killer.
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| Best Practices |
Professional Builder columnist Paul Cardis explains why Technical Olympic USA’s Engle Homes division in Orlando defies market conditions to come out ahead with 206 closings in 28 days.
Some builders anticipate growth and prepare; others hope for it and when it comes are crushed under the weight of increased volume. With proper planning, a builder can implement scaleable operations and grow in a disciplined and controlled manner to make the most of opportunities for incremental and even geographic growth.
Culture is as culture does. Rodney Hall looks at how your company’s actions and behaviors today become the culture you’re known for tomorrow.
The importance of a good attitude goes beyond management; a homebuilders sales staff needs to have one, too. Columnist John Rymer details the right approach to the right attitude.
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