Builders Advised to Pare Costs as Sales Slow

Builders who are finding the current downturn in the housing market tougher than they had anticipated are being advised to take steps to reduce their costs and minimize the damage of slower sales to their business.

“As the home building industry settles into a year of more typical gains, historically speaking, managing and cutting costs are likely to be high on home builders’ minds,” says Steve Hays, a partner-in-charge of the Home Builders Services Group of RubinBrown LLP CPAs, in St. Louis.

Advice from Hays and other experts in managing home building businesses is included in NAHB’s Back to Basics Toolkit. Introduced last month, the online kit is geared to providing members of NAHB with materials that will help them respond to the challenges of the current slowdown in housing activity that is affecting the majority of the markets in the country. ...

Families Finding Homes They Can Afford in the Exurbs

Although significant numbers of families are moving to the fringe communities of large metropolises because this is where they can find the housing they want at a price they can afford, they might otherwise prefer to live elsewhere in the area, closer to stores and in safe communities with good schools and nearby amenities, according to a new study by The Brookings Institution.

Prepared by researchers at Brookings’ Metropolitan Policy Program, “Finding Exurbia: America’s Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe” describes the exurbs and who is living in them, and establishes a baseline for future consideration of their role. ...

Play Builders' Free Online Pro Football Game. Don't Miss Out.

Don't miss another weekend of NFL games — and your chance to win prizes from HGTVPro. Sign up and play in the Builders Football League (BFL) on HTGVpro.com — the free, online pro football "pick 'em" contest with a special league for NAHB members.

Playing is free, fun and easy ― and participants have a chance to win weekly prizes or the grand prize — a Panasonic 61-inch high definition TV — at the end of the season. ...

Share Nation's Building News With Your Staff. It's Free.

Make your business click. Subscribe your employees and trade partners to Nation's Building News — the free, online e-newspaper of NAHB.

Each issue is filled with valuable news and information on every aspect of the home building industry — business and builders tips; the latest materials prices and mortgage interest rates; new technologies; cutting-edge design; state and federal regulations and how they affect the industy; and more. Information your entire company needs to stay ahead of your competitors. ...