Posted on 02/04/2008 11:22:29 PM PST by Lorianne
As home builders feel the squeeze from the housing slump, they are aiming to save money by reducing the choices they offer to buyers.___ Coast to coast, Lennar Corp.'s potential home buyers see different scenery, but they might encounter the same kitchen faucets.
The nation's second-largest home builder is whittling down options and moving toward a one-faucet-fits-similar-price-points model, seeing standardization and simplification as tools in a cost-cutting drive aimed at saving millions of dollars and surviving the housing slump.
Other home builders are taking similar steps. Beazer Homes USA says it reduced its carpet offerings by 85%. Pulte Homes cut back to 400 floor plans from more than 2,000, and Centex cut its roughly 4,500 plans in half, and more reductions are under way.
Variety, builders have realized, costs money. That wasn't much of a problem during housing's heyday, when gross margins were as fat as 25%. Now margins are thin, and builders' stocks are in tatters; one index has them down more than 55% in the past year. Saving money has gained urgency.
"When you can raise prices every Monday morning, like it was during the boom time, it's hard to get the organization's attention on something as mundane as lowering cost," said Pulte Chief Executive Richard J. Dugas Jr.
(Excerpt) Read more at realestate.msn.com ...
I admire Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses.
But I’d much rather live in a nice bungalow.
After that post, I think it is incumbent upon you to provide a phtot of your abode!
Hey, 2 perfectly valid colors.
I like the neighgourhood ...
The house sucks, though ...
I don’t think anyone could get all the Federal, State and Local permits to build that house today.
I met a guy going through a divorce who was living in a wired, 10 x 12 storage shed, a bit smaller than the one shown in your photo, at the back of his property while his wife lived in the house.
I thought that was a trailer park?
Didn't you know? The proletariat must get by with apartments in poured concrete, urban high-rises. Homes and land are for Party Members. See "East Berlin" for example ...
“Just as an aside, alot of celebrity types fly in and ‘rent’ the space for a dinner party, etc. They fly into Labtrobe (private jets) and get chauffeured out there (to Mill Run...very beautiful rural area).”
I try to do it at least a couple of times a week.
Isn’t there a Bible verse that says it’s better to live on a corner of the roof than to live inside with a difficult woman?
It’s in Proverbs somewhere. Lot of wisdom in that statement.
I’m thinking of mosquitoes, myself.
Too much information. Really.
Thank you, Steely Tom. I was hoping someone would speak up for the folks who might actually be able to afford homes this way.
The nerve of those homebuilders! Trying to cut down their costs. Makes it seem like they’re a business or something - can’t have that on a Conservative message board.
Get a grip, folks.
Hey, a “zekes” pad.
ps; get rid of the shutters, good a nof 4 me...
I lived across from one. Subsequent owner paid many thousands re-routing the stream and stabilizing the foundation. And that was before he had to re-roof and re-side the place.
We live in a mid 19th century farmhouse. I wouldn’t trade it for a new one for anything.
The guy is waiting for his cleaning lady to show up.
Frank Lloyd Wright houses are pretty to look at, I just wouldn't want to live in one. He did not build for people.
And the Craftsman style was excellent. Well designed, affordable, durable and very functional.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.