Four years ago we began distributing the publication digitally as an online edition. The dual platform print and digital web linked issues publish together and provide choices and connectivity for builders and suppliers throughout the western United States. Housing has evolved rapidly over the past two decades. Homes are built to much higher standards and are far more efficient than previously built structures. The green housing movement has rapidly taken root in the United States led by pioneering home builders like Mike McGee at Pardee Homes and continued by thousands of home building professionals across the country. Shea Homes, the largest private home builder in the country, has recently announced plans to include solar and other green initiatives in most, if not all, of their new communities. Indeed states like California are mandating energy efficiencies in new home construction within specific time lines. Our 2008 Home Builder of The Year is Bob Yoder Division President of Shea Homes. Bob is a veteran home builder with a long and successful career in the housing business. Bob and Shea are also serial contributors to HomeAid. Shea has been responsible for building shelters and, alongside their trade partner vendors, many playhouses which are auctioned off suring project Playhouse to raise funds for HomeAid’s programs. Shea’s Yoder is a popular choice for Builder of the Year. Congratulations Bob. We wish you the best of continued success. Our final interview for 2008 is Scott Larson, Executive Director of HomeAid Orange County. As an almost ten year veteran of Scott’s Board of Directors It has been my privilege to witness first hand how Scott has steered HomeAid through many succeses and milestones. Scott is a gentleman in every sense of the word and he and his terrific staff, led by Gina Cunningham, do a remarkable job. One of the sad side effects of this economy is the HomeAid shelters will all be operating at full capacity during this holiday season. Since charity begins at home and HomeAid is our very own building industry charitable out reach, I encourage you to consider a donation to HomeAid this Christmas. Contact Scott at 949.553.9510 or via www.homeaidoc.org to pledge your support. This fine organization really is making a huge difference in the lives of many transitionally homeless men, women and especially children in our communities. There are almost 40,000 homeless in Orange County alone.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all of our loyal monthly advertisers. Many of whom have been with us through all 18 volumes of the magazine. Please support the fine businesses you find in our pages each month. On behalf of the hardest working magazine staff in the building industry I would like to extend seasons greetings and happy holidays to each of you and your colleagues and families. Have a safe and happy holiday and here’s to a far better 2009 and beyond!

Slainte,

Nick Slevin
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
nslevin@penpubinc.com

This problem is at the root of national housing price declines and must be attended to in a more comprehensive fashion, in order to quickly stabilize house values across the country. There is a government program called Hope for Homeowners which could use significant tweaking in order for it to work effectively, but is better than no help for homeowners at all, which is really the current alternative. As my friend home builder Mick Pattinson mentions in his article in this issue, “Housing may have led us into this, but it can certainly lead us out again, too.” Bearing in mind we are two plus years into this long anticipated correction already and that our industry has already shed over 3 million jobs. We really need decisive leadership right now. By some estimates we are now loosing a home building business every hour. This is a very desperate state of affairs indeed and it requires the immediate attention of congress and our elected officials.

For the housing market to work efficiently we need house price affordability. We are beginning to achieve that. We need demand for housing. We are experiencing this as well. After all, people are still getting together and starting families. We also need mortgage credit to be readily available, it is not. We need between three to five months of housing supply in the market, we have considerably more than that, although some recent reports indicate we have 350,000 un sold new home units for sale nationally, which is an improvement over a few months ago. What’s really missing is incentive. We lack a strong motivator to encourage folks to get into the market and buy a home. NAHB has recently announced a new program called ‘Fix Housing First’. The association is going all out to lobby our electeds to step up to the plate and provide a significant tax incentive for home buyers purchasing a primary residence in the near future. The plan will also include a 4.5% flat interest rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage. This type of incentive is designed to get people off the sidelines and into the market for a home. Housing is a huge business that generates billions of dollars that make their way through the economy, creating real jobs in construction and in factories all over the country. Housing creates real wealth for home owners, investors, finance companies, taxes for municipalities. Housing is literally a bricks and mortar, old economy business. Not an Internet phenomenon or a get rich quick scheme, but rather a proven strong pillar of a national economy that is badly in need of alignment. For myself, 2008 marked my 20th year in the publishing side of the home building business. I worked for the Southern California Builder magazine back in 1988. The magazine you are reading just celebrated it’s 19th birthday. We launched our web site in May of 1996, www.bdmag.com