Housing Giants - September 24, 2008 - (Page 24)

f e at u r e different business model that subdivision detached homes at four to the acre. “You have to master-plan the community very carefully,” says Carmichael. “You need a range of product sizes and densities. If everyone builds 900 squarefoot houses, it’s a tough sell. Builders who are pioneering these products — like California Pacific Homes — mix different sizes from 900 to 1,800 square feet, with bedroom counts ranging from one-plus-den to three.” “People still prefer detached to attached homes,” says Carmichael. “The challenge is to understand what they want, and what they can afford, then try to bridge that gap.” wAve Of THe fUTUre? Laguna Beach, Calif.-based management consultant Doug Wilson of Next Solutions is an advocate of the Rayco model, an approach to product development and marketing developed by Wilson’s longtime consulting partner, Jack Robinson, when Robinson was a vice president of Rayco Homes in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1980s. The Rayco model calls for builders to survey all home buyers in a market, including those who buy existing homes, to learn not only what buyers want, but what they actually pay for. Wilson is now such a strong believer in high-density detached that he’s currently in the final stages of entitling a project of his own in partnership with Irvine, Calif.-based MBK Homes. It will place 250 two-story homes on 23 acres in San Bernardino County, Calif. However, Wilson admits that he and MBK do not plan to start selling and building houses until the market shows signs of life, and that may depend on some resolution of the financial dilemma that faces first-time buyers today. “We’ve got to find a solution to the mortgage crisis before affordable housing of any kind makes sense,” says Carmichael. Jack Haynes, Dallas-based executive vice president of the national builder division for Countrywide Home Loans, admits high-density detached (or attached) housing faces tough sledding today both for construction financing as well as mortgage money availability for buyers. “Today, this type of product will have problems on both sides,” he says. “You’d have trouble getting construction loans to build it or mortgage money for buyers — especially in those 24 HOUSING GIANTS.9.24.08 www.HOUSINGGIANTS.cOm http://www.mbkhomes.com http://www.nextsol.com http://www.countrywide.com http://www.housinggiants.com

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Housing Giants - September 24, 2008

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