The Home Builders Association of Greenville are your neighbors and community leaders providing education and support for building industry professionals. We create jobs, encourage homeownership, and promote responsible growth throughout the upstate of South Carolina.
The construction outlook is more optimistic in the Upstate than the Lowcountry, according to the latest construction barometer released by Carolinas Associated General Contractors.
The report showed a 1% uptick overall in North Carolina and South Carolina for the third quarter, despite the disappearance of federal stimulus spending, particularly in the highway and utility segment.
In the Upstate, the barometer increased 2.7 percent while it fell 3.4 percent in the Lowcountry.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency today reported that the National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders, used as an index in some ARM contracts, was 4.42 percent based on
Occasionally our members share money-saving tips with one another. This one is from Rick Quinn, Quinn Satterfield, regarding the inclusion of trash and sewer fees on bills for temporary water service from the City of Greenville.
When one of our builder members was asked why he was a part of the HBA, he answered with this analogy:
Nationwide housing starts rose 3.9 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 555,000 units from an upwardly revised number in the previous month, according to newly released data from the U.S. Commerce Department. This marked the first upward movement in new-home production since August, and was entirely attributable to a nearly 7 percent gain in single-family home building.
"Builders are very cautiously adding to their diminished inventories in preparation for the spring buying season and an anticipated modest revival in buyer demand when the economy shows more signs of improvement," said Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. "That said, we are still looking at a very low level of housing production, due largely to builders' inability to obtain construction financing."
"The modest increase in single-family starts and permits in November is consistent with a very low inventory of unsold new homes and our member surveys that have shown a degree of optimism among builders with regard to sales expectations in the next six months," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "However, builders continue to find it extremely difficult to obtain credit for acquisition, development and construction activities, and this is weighing on their ability to initiate viable new projects that could generate much-needed job growth."
The 3.9 percent gain in overall housing starts this November was due entirely to a 6.9 percent increase to a 465,000 unit seasonally adjusted annual rate of new-home production on the single-family side. Meanwhile, multifamily housing starts declined 9.1 percent to a 90,000-unit rate.
Regionally, starts activity showed gains in all but one part of the country in November. The Midwest, South and West each posted gains, of 15.8 percent, 2.3 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, while the Northeast posted a 2.5 percent decline.
Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, declined 4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000 units in November, its lowest level since April of 2009. However, this decline was entirely due to a 23 percent drop-off in the more volatile multifamily sector, where permits hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of just 114,000 units. In contrast, single-family permits rose 3 percent to a rate of 416,000 units – their highest level since this June.
Regionally, permit activity was mixed in November, with the Northeast and Midwest registering declines of 8.3 percent and 22.2 percent, respectively, and the South and West posting gains of 1.9 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.
The South Carolina Department of Commerce and the Greenville Area Development Corporation announced that Century Plastics will expand its production facility in Greenville County. The $3.5 million investment is expected to generate 25 new jobs.
Read the entire report at the S.C. Department of Commerce by clicking here.
In the face of far weaker post-recession economic growth than normal and a discouragingly anemic job market, housing will have to wait until next year and the year after for the gains it needs to dig out of its worst downturn since World War II, according to panelists participating in NAHB's Construction Forecast Webinar on Oct. 27.
While economists generally have been scaling back their earlier forecasts for housing activity this year, the good news is that the job market should improve sufficiently in 2011 to begin thawing the big freeze in household formations of the past few years and to put consumers in a brighter mood, both of which are prerequisites for boosting housing demand, they said.
Some parts of the country will recover sooner than others, the economists on the panel said, and foreclosures will linger as a problem in many of the largest housing markets. However, supply and demand may be in a healthier balance than suggested by today's high vacancy rates and even conservative demographic projections suggest that housing production will have a lot of catching up to do in the decade ahead.
Rick Quinn, Quinn Satterfield, LLCBracing themselves for a tough fourth quarter and beyond, sawmills in the South began cutting production and shipping from inventory at the end of third quarter, according to data released by Forest2Market Inc.
Revenue from sawmill residuals remained flat and the average composite lumber price fell by nearly 25 percent. At the same time, log costs fell just under 5 percent. By the end of September, shipment volume for southern yellow pine lumber increased as mills reduced production levels. Shipments remained higher throughout October.
Amendment 1, add to the end of Article XIII (Voting, Proxies, and Quorums) of the Bylaws a new section:
The President may conduct meetings of the Board of Directors by electronic means. Electronic means includes telephone conference call, internet-based video conference, fax, or email. Actions taken in meetings held by electronic means shall have the same effect as a meeting with the Board of Directors physically assembled and meeting in a common location.
Meetings conducted by electronic means are limited to one topic, must meet the notice requirements of Article VII, Section 4 of these Bylaws, and may not take the place of regularly-scheduled meetings. The quorum requirements of the Bylaws also must be followed.
Business conducted according to this Section will be recorded in minutes of the meeting and presented to the Board of Directors by the Secretary for the approval of the Board of Directors. When taking a vote by electronic means, the President must poll all board members with voting privileges.
When meeting by conference call or internet-based video conference, the meeting will be conducted in the same manner as a meeting in which the members are physically assembled.
When email or fax is used to take a vote, the President must establish a deadline for responding to the request for vote and the deadline must be at least five (5) days following transmittal of the business to the voting members of the Board of Directors. The deadline to vote must be included in the request for a vote. Any votes received after the deadline will not be counted. Response to the request for vote must be either “yes”, “no” or “I desire a discussion”. If three members of the Board of Directors request discussion of the topic, the special meeting will be declared adjourned by the President and the matter must be added to the agenda of the next meeting of the Board of Directors. Members casting their vote when requested by email or fax may respond in the following manner: by email, fax, telephone, or in person at the association’s office. All votes will be collected by the Executive Vice President. After the deadline for the vote has passed, the Executive Vice President will report the results of the voting to the Secretary, who will approve the results and report them to the Board of Directors.
This section also applies to any standing committee, Council Board of Trustees, or committee or task force properly formed by the Board of Directors.
RATIONALE: State law requires that the bylaws allow for meeting and voting by electronic means in order for meetings and votes to be held electronically. This amendment will satisfy state law and allow the Board of Directors and committees to meet by conference call as well as allow for voting on non-controversial matters by electronic ballot.
Amendment 2, Add to the end of Article X (Board of Directors), Section 5, of the Bylaws:
If an Officer or Director has missed consecutive meetings of either the Board of Directors or the Executive Committee, the Officer or Director is ineligible to vote until he or she has attended one meeting without voting privileges of the governing body at which he or she has missed consecutive meetings.
RATIONALE: The bylaws are proposed to be strengthened the voting rights of a member of the Board of Directors who has missed two meetings in a row. The Bylaws Committee believes that consistency of attendance is important to good association governance and this amendment will encourage directors to consistently attend meetings of the Board of Directors.
Amendment 3, Amend Article X (Board of Directors), Sec. 7., of the Bylaws as follows:
(a) Regular meetings of the Board of Directors shall be held each month quarterly and may meet at other times when a meeting is called in compliance with Section 7.b. of this Article. The President may cancel meetings of the Board of Directors when there is a lack of business to conduct. However, the Board of Directors must meet at least ten (10) four (4) times in a year and may not fail to meet for two four consecutive months.
RATIONALE: This amendment will allow the Board of Directors to meet less frequently while still fully addressing the association’s business. The Board of Directors would like to meet quarterly for regular business and will meet at least two additional times during the year for strategic planning and orientation. This change is consistent with best practice for association boards of directors and is intended to be more efficient with the time of volunteers and staff.
The Bylaws amendments will be considered at the association's Annual Membership Meeting on November 11. To register for the Annual Meeting, click here.
