I just received a glossy, full color 44-page “President’s Report” from the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties.  I wonder if these guys have gotten the memo.  Their members are hurting.  The New Home Industry is under siege!  I’m more optimistic than the next guy about good things lying ahead, but right now, I have to wonder why I’m paying these guys big dues so the “President” can report in the most old-skool of ways.  Here’s a suggestion:  try the Internet for Sam’s sake!  Email your report.  Post on the Association website.  Put it on Sam’s Facebook page.  Anything but print and mail a 44-page slick report that actually does little to address the core issues that face our industry.  And  if any MBA’ers are thinking I’m being a little harsh?  Be damn glad I didn’t choose to pick on the wretched, self-serving excess of that thick hard cover you published this year for the 100th Anniversary.  Can I find anything GOOD to say about the Pres’s report? The orange on the back cover is pretty nifty!

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As this year’s PCBC conference wound down and the the winners headed home clutching their hard -earned Gold Nugget awards, Builder Magazine went live with a review of the nation’s top 15 new home markets.  It’s a real eye-opener.  They also amuse (or depress) us with their review of the 15 top losers.  It was very interesting to see where markets like Seattle and Washington D.C. fell.  I guess the democrats are good for biz if you consider a growing number of government workers all need a new place to live.  Read it here.

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Below are links of some of the best articles on this news:

Bloomberg

Chicago Tribune

PR Newswire

Number Four ranked Pulte just pulled off a stock swap netting for itself #3 ranked Centex to become the new #1, overtaking long-time leader D. R. Horton who slipped to the new #2. Last year, Pulte and Centex combined closed 39,000 sales. To put it in perspective, that’s 150 homes per business day in the worst housing market since 1930!

What are we to think? At first blush, Wall Street Journal reported that the stock market smiled on the other large national public builders—Beazer, Lennar and Hovnanian shot up in midday trading, while Moody’s pondered a credit downgrade on the new entity.  Centex was the Old Skool queen. Cheap. Efficient. And unimaginative. Pulte was the steady Eddie who also lucked out by a big presence in Texas and the Carolinas, where the housing dive hasn’t been quite as bad.

What I’m waiting for is the Apple of the home building industry to make its appearance and take us into New Homes 3.0. We need a design and innovation revolution to create new products for a new generation. We need to see homes that are way greener than the current green-wash approach used so much. We need homes close to public transportation. We need the Del Webb (Pulte owned) for the new generation.

I have two young adults in my family who are within a few years of their first home purchase. Who is listening to this generation? They will trade square feet to live near friends…to be less dependent on cars. And they will trade mom and dad’s oversized suburban box for coolness.

If this innovation comes from the new #1, I will be both shocked and thrilled. But believe me, I’m not holding my breath.

Who do you know out there who are building a new, exciting and appropriately priced products for the Millennial generation?

And who’s building smarter and greener? We need to get the word out and keep the heat on the big boyz. Leave your comments or rants in the handy space below.

Right now I’m thinking small is the new big.

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