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Centex and Westfield tied for the top spot in a survey ranking customer satisfaction with home builders in the Charlotte area. Centex ranked No. 1 last year, too. Tied for third -- just one point below the market leaders in the annual survey by J.D. Power -- were John Wieland, Pulte Homes and Saussy Burbank. J.D. Power, the California marketing research firm, asks buyers to rate builders on such things as customer service, home readiness, sales staff, quality of design and workmanship. The survey covered 34 markets this year. In Charlotte, it included responses from about 2,200 buyers in Mecklenburg and seven other counties. To be included, builders had to close 150 or more homes in 2005. In Charlotte -- and across the country -- the average customer satisfaction score is 112.
Would you be willing to spend more money for a house that's more comfortable, healthy, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly than the average home? The Home Builders Association of Bucks and Montgomery Counties hopes so. The HBA on Tuesday launched a new program that gives home builders a road map to getting their homes certified as green. The HBA's Keystone Green Building Initiative, modeled on existing programs from around the country, establishes a point system builders can follow to get houses classified as one of three achievement levels: bronze, silver or gold. The idea, said Carl Seville, a Decatur, Ga., green building consultant who helped the local construction group launch its program, is to sell home builders, and home buyers, on the benefits of environmentally friendly building practices.
While the midyear dis-counts appear to be relatively rare in the Rock River Valley, Chestnut President John Barcelona said they are common in the fast-growing Chicago suburban markets where Chestnut historically has done most of its work.
First, we are trying to break into a new market, Barcelona said of his 1,400- to 2,800-square-foot homes. Chestnut is offering the same discounts in a subdivision in another new market, in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., near Kenosha. Its also a function of the buyer. Its a much different market than a year ago. Sales for higher-end homes are much slower than a year ago.
Indeed, the first part of the decade was marked by record home sales nationally with huge jumps in prices in major metropolitan markets and on the East and West coasts.
Authorities said at least a dozen construction workers in D.C. are being hospitalized after complaining about an unusual odor. Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman Alan Etter said the men reported having trouble breathing, burning eyes and irritated skin. .
Clive Mullings (right), Opposition member of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), makes way for K.D. Knight, Government member, following a verbal clash over seating arrangements during yesterday's sitting of the PAC. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer Contractor General Greg Christie, who yesterday made his last appearance before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee which is examining the Sandals Whitehouse debacle, says his office had been subjected to verbal attacks during the three sittings. The claim, while supported by Opposition members, was dismissed by Government member K.D. Knight. Minutes after Mr. Christie's pronouncement, Government member John Junor created a firestorm when he asked the Contractor General if he had a relative linked to the Sandals Whitehouse project.
More than 400 construction industry and architecture professionals gathered at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel last week for the 71st annual Construction Industry Awards, hosted by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. The Oct. 5 event honored UCLA, USC and the Getty Center for "thinking ahead and planning for growth." Harold M. Williams, president emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Trust and counsel at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, received the Ira Yellin Distinguished Achievement Award for his work on establishing the Westside venue. Peter W. Blackman, administrative vice chancellor at UCLA, was given a lifetime achievement honor for overseeing the retrofitting of the UCLA campus, and Curtis Williams, vice president of facilities management at USC, received a lifetime achievement award for the capital construction campaign on the university's two campuses.
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