Voices of the "Next Generation"

Associations throughout the country, including the HBAGTA are surveying the "Next Generation" to find out how we can best serve them in the years to come.  If you were born after 1965 and work for any company in the Home Building or Remodeling Industry, please take the time to complete this survey: "Your Future In The Home Building & Remodeling Industry". 

At least 20 (twenty) respondents who complete BOTH sections of the survey will be eligible to win a $100 gift card! 

If you have any questions regarding your qualifications to take the survey or if you would like more information, contact Kathy Maisonville, Executive Officer of the Home Builders Association of the Grand Traverse Area at 231.946.2305 or kathy@hbagta.com.

CLICK BELOW TO ACCESS THE SURVEY:

Your Future In The Home Building & Remodeling Industry

Builders Get Leg-Up on Competition at Upcoming Green Building Conference Nashville Event to Feature Homes Tour, Education, Exhibit Hall and More

WASHINGTON, April 13--Building professionals looking to expand their green building skills, or those just getting started in building green, will find tools for success at the 2012 National Green Building Conference and Expo in Nashville, Tenn., April 29-May 1.

Hosted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the annual conference will be held at the Nashville Convention Center. It will feature an exhibit hall with cutting-edge green products, a wide variety of education courses, unmatched networking opportunities and notable speakers and special events.

The event will be kicked off with a keynote session from renowned around-the-world solo sailor, Derek Hatfield. In his most recent race, Hatfield relied on solar and wind power instead of fossil fuels to generate the electricity needed during the race - an approach that goes hand-in-hand with the main principles of working toward a more sustainable future. He will share his exciting experiences and stories of circumnavigating the globe, and discuss his efforts in sustainability.

Two new offerings at the show this year provide building professionals with insights into the green market, and tips for enhancing their green building techniques. They are:

· Analysis of the Green Market--McGraw-Hill Construction, NAHB and Waste Management, Inc. will reveal the results of a new Smart Market Report on Residential Green Building. The report highlights the growth of green building and provides building professionals with insight into potential market opportunities, consumer preferences and industry trends.

· Green Building Plan Review--Attendees will have the opportunity to review their building plans with an architect, an accredited verifier for the National Green Building Certification Program and a home builder. All are experienced in working with the National Green Building Standard, which was the result of a partnership between NAHB and the International Code Council. They will be able to answer questions and provide practical tips and suggestions for making projects greener and more efficient.

"We are excited to be able to offer so many exciting opportunities for builders and remodelers to expand their knowledge of green building," said Eric Borsting, chairman of the National Green Building Conference and Expo. "Conference attendees will get the full experience with classroom training, tours of green homes, a showcase of green products, networking opportunities, knowledgeable speakers and much more."

Another conference highlight is the annual Green Building & Technology Tour, which offers builders a glimpse into the design and green building practices used by local builders. Attendees have the chance to hear firsthand about the building process, the green building certifications used and the value the homes bring to their owners.

Additionally, attendees are invited to attend the Muddy Boots Mixer and Awards event, for a night of networking, live music, food and recognition of the year's best in green building.

To register for the National Green Building Conference and Expo, or for additional information, visit www.nahb.org/greenbuildingconference.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Complimentary registration is available to credentialed members of the working press. For more information, please contact Liz Thompson, at ethompson@nahb.org.]

The Latest New Home Design Trends

Each year at the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show, the Best in American Living Awards (BALA) provide recognition to builders and design professionals who have accomplished outstanding design achievements. Awards are given in all sectors of the residential housing industry, including single-family production, custom, rental, affordable, interiors, remodeling, community and international.

The BALA awards spotlight the latest design trends, and are often a sign of what will become popular in new residential construction around the country. Here are a few of the top trends home buyers can expect to soon see in new home designs, if they aren’t already:

Classic yet Contemporary

Homes that are hot sellers on the market right now are those that successfully blend old styles with new. Timeless and elegant spaces are created by blending modern and traditional elements such as crown molding with fewer or less fancy pieces. Elevations are clean and simple and interiors are fresh and light, not ornate and heavy like the formerly-popular elements such as ornamental columns, complex crown molding and cabinetry with additional applied decorative pieces.

Multigenerational Living

Given the increasing cultural diversity in America as well as the state of the economy during the past few years, many families are all living under one roof. To save money, young adults are living at home after they graduate school, and retired parents are sharing homes with their grown children and their families. Single-family home designs accommodate multigenerational households, such as homes with two master suites, often with at least one located on the ground floor to be more accessible.

Cost Effective Designs

Rectangular home designs are more cost effective, so new homes no longer have the “exploding house” look with multiple, odd roof lines or the unnecessary interior volumes they create. But home designs can still be visually stimulating with creative and innovative modifications that reduce construction and system costs to the home owner. For example, mixing materials such as metal, wood and stone in the façade give a home a modern look.

The Family Triangle

Open floor plans is a trend that isn’t new, but has expanded.  Ground-floor focused, open floor plan living spaces used to be specific to certain regions and generations, but now it is desired by all buyer profiles across the country. Many designs eliminate the living room and add a flex space or den adjacent to the kitchen or family room to allow for privacy when needed, and still accommodate flexibility for many different uses.

Kitchen Entertaining with a View

The kitchen remains one of the most important rooms in the house. Yet kitchens are still a modest size as the average overall square footage of new homes has decreased in the past few years. So designers are incorporating creative storage solutions to both suit the home owners’ unique needs and to allow more windows above the countertops rather than cabinets to retain a feeling of open, light space. 

Green Design Elements that Consumers Understand and Want

The 2011 BALA entries reflected the fact that home buyers now expect a certain level of green design in their new homes that provide both comfort and cost savings. Green technologies such as tankless water heaters and highly efficient HVAC systems that directly impact and reduce operating costs are commonly installed in new construction.

To see all the winners of 2011 BALA awards, go to www.nahb.org/BALA. To find a professional home builder or remodeler in the Grand Traverse Area go to www.hbagta.com.

Builder Confidence Unchanged in March

WASHINGTON, March 19 - Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes was unchanged in March from a revised level of 28 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today. This means that following five consecutive months of gains, the HMI is now holding at its highest level since June of 2007.

"While builders are still very cautious at this time, there is a sense that many local housing markets have started to move in the right direction and that prospects for future sales are improving," said Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Gainesville, Florida. "This is demonstrated by the fact that the HMI component measuring builder expectations continued climbing for a sixth straight month in March, to its highest level in more than four years."

"Builder confidence is now twice as strong as it was six months ago, and the West was the only region to experience a decline this month following an unusual spike in February," observed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "That said, many of our members continue to cite obstacles on the road to recovery, including persistently tight builder and buyer credit and the ongoing inventory of distressed properties in some markets."

Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as "good," "fair" or "poor." The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as "high to very high," "average" or "low to very low." Scores from each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

While the HMI component gauging current sales conditions declined one point to 29 in March, the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months gained two points to 36 and the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers held unchanged at 22.

Regionally in March, the HMI gained five points to 25 in the Northeast, two points to 32 in the Midwest and two points to 27 in the South, but fell 10 points in the West following a 22-point gain in the previous month.

Single-Family Housing Starts Rise 4.4 Percent in December

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - Nationwide production of new single-family homes rose 4.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 470,000 units in December, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Commerce Department. This marked a third consecutive increase and the fastest pace of single-family housing starts since April of 2010. Meanwhile, the overall number of housing starts for the month declined 4.1 percent to a 657,000-unit rate due to a 20.4 percent dip on the more volatile multifamily side.

"Today's report adds to the growing evidence that demand for new, single-family homes is finally starting to firm up in an increasing number of markets nationwide," said Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Reno, Nev. "This emerging trend is allowing builders to put more crews back to work, and could be even stronger if not for the overly tight credit conditions that prevail for both builders and buyers, as well as the continuing foreclosure crisis and the challenges of obtaining accurate appraisal values on new homes. Policymakers should be doing everything possible to alleviate these problems and nurture the fledgling housing recovery in order to promote job and economic growth."

"This report is in keeping with our expectations for slow but steady improvement in the single-family market, where production hit its lowest yearly rate in over 50 years in 2011," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "Meanwhile, it should be noted that the decline in multifamily starts in December was coming off a dramatic increase from the previous month and simply brought that sector back closer to trend. Apartment production generally continues to gain strength heading into 2012 after posting a more-than 50 percent gain in 2011." Looking forward, NAHB is forecasting gains of approximately 17 percent in both single- and multifamily housing production in 2012.

Combined single- and multifamily housing starts fell 4.1 percent to a 657,000-unit rate in December due to the multifamily side retreating 20.4 percent from a big gain in the previous month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 187,000 units. However, for the year as a whole, overall housing production was pegged at 606,900 units, which was 3.4 percent better than the overall number of starts in 2010.

Regionally, December housing starts rose 54.8 percent in the Midwest following a big decline in the previous month. The Northeast posted a 41.2 percent decline that offset a big gain in the previous month, while the South and West also posted declines of 3.0 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively.

Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, held virtually flat at a 679,000-unit rate in December. Single-family permits rose for a third consecutive month, by 1.8 percent to 444,000 units, while multifamily permits declined 3.7 percent to 235,000 units.

Regionally, permits rose 5.8 percent in the Midwest and held unchanged in the West, but declined 6.5 percent in the Northeast and 0.6 percent in the South in December.