What Happened in Vegas, for Once, Leaves Vegas
Click here for full line-up of Builderonline Coverage of the International Builders Show.
On the ground at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas last week, Hanley Wood has been a hive of activity. Correspondents from a dozen or more of Hanley Wood’s titles roved the inner and outer rings of hell at the convention, capturing the many faces of the show for a spectrum of audiences with an array of information needs and enthusiasms that range from what’s new in nails to what makes a home builder want to get up in the morning.
Builder TV introduced daily news coverage of IBS proceedings, with editorial director Boyce Thompson leading a team of staff correspondents, producers, and videographers on the show floor. Analysis of industry data, face-to-face interviews with home builders, products and materials suppliers, consultants, and analysts, and product demos populate the line-up of reports and video segments. Have a look.
- EcoHome’s staff scoured the show floor for standouts among the hundreds of new planet-friendlier products on display last week. Here’s where to go to see their report.
Click pic for Yaussi's IBS-alog.
Big Builder senior editor Sarah Yaussi weaves observational, analytical, and personal data and insights in her five-part Baedeker from Las Vegas. In addition to round-the-clock reporting among home building executives, market intelligence analysts, and sales and marketing gurus, Yaussi’s daily journal takes her conversation out among some of the Las Vegas Valley’s new communities–each struggling to strike a chord among the few home buyers trolling for new home dreams come true. Here’s a snippet for example.
I asked Barry Gross, founder of Developers Research, this question following the close of the session. Sitting at a table in the corner of Starbucks, the first thought out of his mouth was that builders and developers needed to rethink their existing land plans; they’ve already retooled the product, but it’s not enough. There are ways to cut significant costs by thinking about development in a different way, generating more pocketable cash for the builder/developer that can help them wait out this stalemate between banks and the builders.
The key to achieving that is understanding relationships, Barry explained. Point in case? Barry said he sees builders and developers spend money on grading land to save paving costs, not realizing that it’s going to cost them more per square foot for the necessary landscaping post-grading.
But after a few moments of thought, Barry had a couple more words of advice for builders struggling with this issue:
- Get a quality control department that can review the documents you submit to the municipalities. Will save you time, money, and aggravation.
Click Webb photo to access Craig's blog.
ProSales magazine editor Craig Webb and his staff went the extra mile, literally, in Vegas. Here’s a link to the package of reports they put together from the trenches, along with sister titles Building Products and ebuild. What’s more, Craig posted an analysis of housing economics with a bit of a silver lining in his blog earlier this week. Here’s the link, and a sampling of his commentary.
Signs of an economic recovery could start showing up as early as May, led in part by what could be a surprisingly strong rebound in residential housing, a veteran economist told insulation dealers Saturday.
Kenneth Mayland, president of ClearView Economics, Pepper Pike, Ohio, was both optimistic and dour during his presentation in Las Vegas at Guardian Building Products’ Installed Sales Program conference. For instance, while he said that a vigorous housing market recover “could be the surprise for this year,” he is only forecasting 810,000 housing starts for this year, about 10% fewer than in 2008, and doesn’t believe starts will top 1 million again until 2011. He also expects non-residential construction activity to slow in 2009 and “languish at the bottom” in 2010.
On the plus side, Mayland noted that the typical recession lasts about 10 months. The group officially responsible for declaring when recessions start said the current one began in December 2007, but Mayland believes the downturn came in earnest only in August or September of 2008. Assuming this recession also will last 10 months, that would point to a turnaround around May.
In light of the fact that the NAHB reported that attendance at the show dropped off by almost 50% from last year, the Hanley Wood team pushed to give non-attendees access to highlights and hot-points at this year’s show.
- Here’s a link to Patrick Duffy’s HousingChronicles blog from IBS.
- Jonathan Smoke’s HousingIntelligence blog provides a take on home builder sentiment from Vegas.
- “From Browsers to Buyers” author and sales dynamo Mike Lyon weighs in with a show wrap on his DoYouConvert blog.
Question is, do you feel you missed anything by not going this year?
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