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 ...
Fallingwater hasn't been a private residence in 50 years. The Kaufman family turned it over to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy -- and I'm sure got a hefty tax deduction. The Kaufman's actually spent very little time in the house. It was built as a summer home and used through the 40s and 50s as such. The house itself is cold and drafty with high moisture. The kitchen is about the size of a closet.
From a maintenance standpoint, it is a money pit. They had to rebuild the upper patio which was in collapsing.
I have visited it a number of times and it is wonderful to look at, but as far as a residence, I much rather have the guest house which is far more comfortable than the main house.
“I’m not a fan of Wright’s Usonian houses. Talk about cookie cutter!”
I hate FLW’s architecture. Garbage.
Saying you like something to sound classy, doesn’t make you classy. It just ensures you’ll be eating a lot of food you don’t care for throughout your life.
I’m mixed on FLW. I like Fallingwater and some of his more traditional designs. Not a big fan of the far out stuff.
The builders added far more steel reinforcement than FLW called for... because it was blindingly obvious that it would collapse under its own weight rapidly by his design.
Even with this steel added behind the architects back its still suffering cracks and damage due to being underengineered.
Its a beautiful property, but he grossly underengineered it. He was driven completely by estetics.
He must have learned his lesson. The Johnson Wax Headquarters is over-engineered. When they tested the tulip-shaped supports, they held something like twice the weight required.
Since you have visited there alot, here is my other gripe (other than the coldness/dampness) I didn't like (I know taste is subjective) the built-in furniture. Almost everything was/is stationary...I remember being on a tour and remarking (quietly to my friend) 'wouldn't you like to change a room around?' only to be stared down like 'you are for real? Stunning setting and great ambience, but you are right...not 'living in' friendly.
Now that is some serious cave time! lol.
Is that a “clear cut” I see??
That is certainly true here in Vermont. The affordable neighborhood I live in could never be built today. It's for the good of the environment of course. The only things that can be built today are McMansions on 5+ acres or 'highrise' condos.
Probably the most successful prefab houses, however, were the Sears bungalows. The NW and SW sides of Chicago are almost completely dominated by these classics.
Is it on a 4,500 sq ft lot?
Levitt learned his trade in the Navy during WWII building barracks.
Of course, about 20 miles south of me is the New Jersey Levittown, now called Willingboro. It is notable because it was built in response to criticisms about the Levitts refusing to sell to blacks at the time (Levittown/Willingboro, NJ continuing to be a stronghold of the black middle class to this day).
It is better to live in a corner of the roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman.
Agree. It’s a nice work of art, but IMHO, the Kaufman’s got ripped.
We’ve had cookie cutter homes since Levittown after World War II. I hate those kinds of houses.
one could put on wheels, leave the lattuce....
20,000 ... If it were not a trapazoidal shaped lot, it would be a half acre. Montgomery, AL area.
Huh, the type of ‘McMansions’ going up around here aren’t affordable by the average working couple. And quite a few of the ones who did somehow manage to obtain a mortgage on them are now finding themselves in sheriff’s auction, unable to pay that mortgage.
I truly wish affordable, reasonable housing *was* going up around here. I look at so many of the developments in what was beautiful farmland a few years ago and think ‘Why do 4 people need a house that huge?’
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