According to Chuck Shinn of Shinn Consulting: The one thing Shinn doesn’t recommend is re-hiring a lot of staff. There’s no guarantee that the flurry of activity from the tax credit will continue after it expires — and most builders have streamlined their operations to make do with less overhead anyway. It’s a lesson that Pat Neal has learned, and he has no plans to bring back staff.
To accommodate the increased activity, Shinn recommends outsourcing such functions as purchasing, architectural plans, estimating and selections. “Builders ought to look at those instead of hiring people, which is sticky overhead that’s hard to get rid of,” he says. “It allows a small builder to play the game like the publics’. If they take advantage of some of this, they can look like a huge builder with really talented people and still be a small operation.”
Read the full article in the January issue of Professional Builder.

There’s a home builder in STL that lowered the price of their luxury homes to under $200,000
http://www.fischerandfrichtel.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/luxury-neighborhoods-become-more-affordable/