The United States gets hit by roughly the same number of hurricanes each year. But they are growing in intensity, thanks to higher level of moisture in the lower atmosphere. In 2017, two Category 4 hurricanes struck U.S. shores. The next year, Michael made landfall along the Gulf of Mexico with Category 5 force with […]
How to Pick the Right Builder
The most important decision you make when building a new home is selecting your builder. Nothing can make or break the home-building experience like the builder you choose. Some people spend years in their new house cursing a builder who cut corners or cost them a fortune by failing to do things right the first […]
Add an Accessory Apartment to Your Home
There are many reasons why it makes sense to plan for an accessory apartment if you building a new home. It provides unrivaled flexibility while your family is living in the house. If you don’t use the apartment for your family — for say, an in-law or boomerang child — you can rent it to […]
Comparing the Average House Today to Those of Yore
The median size of a new home in the U.S. now stands at a record 2,435 square feet, almost 1,000 square feet bigger than in 1973. You could almost fit a second house into 1,000 square feet, though it would have to a small one. The data comes to us from the U.S. Census, which […]
The New New Home
My first book, The New, New Home, was published in late April 2014 by The Taunton Press. It was named the book of the year by the National Association of Real Estate Editors. The book demystifies the new-home buying process and provides guidance to potential home buyers who want to buy a new home that […]
Brad Pitt’s New Orleans Experiment Becomes a Real Neighborhood
Brad Pitt’s noble experiment in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans looks like a real neighborhood now, though the home designs barely hang together on the block
K. Hovnanian Teams with Piet Boon
If K. Hovnanian’s goal was to stand out in the Phoenix homebuilding marketplace, the builder has certainly succeeded with its new Line K of homes designed by Dutch architect Piet Boon.
New Town Builders Markets Zero-Ready Homes
Gene Myers ran dozens of computer simulations before he found the best way to build net-zero homes that met his tough, self-imposed criteria. Each year, the CEO of New Town Builders conducts a research exercise designed to produce a new series of extremely energy-efficient homes. New Town Builders offers Zero-Ready homes with a HERS of […]
Garbett Introduces New Line of Contemporary Production Homes in Utah
Utah’s Garbett Homes had so much success selling entry-level contemporary homes that executives decided to introduce a new series of move-up moderns, including a net-zero version selling in the $500,000s. The new series, called Bellasol and selling in Herriman, Utah, ranges from 2,000 to 3,100 square feet. Like Garbett’s previous series, Solaris, it was designed […]