HBA Annual Meeting and Associate Appreciation Recap

Top: Mike Lowman, President of Mike Lowman Homes, Columbia, SC, and Vice President of HBA of South Carolina, speaks at the HBA of Greenville Annual Meeting.

Bottom: Howard Cox, Home Builders Insurance, receives his Super Spike award for 379 spikes from President Tom Dillard, the result of years of hard work recruiting and retaining HBA members.




The HBA of Greenville held it annual meeting and Associate Appreciation dinner this week. More than 50 members and guests gathered to recognize the association's Associate members, Spike Club members, and to do the business of the association.

Mike Lowman of Mike Lowman Homes in Columbia, SC, addressed the membership and discussed his plans for 2011 as he prepares to become president of the Home Builders Association of South Carolina. Joining Lowman was Mark Nix, Executive Director of the HBA of South Carolina.

Special guests included four members of the NAHB Student Chapter at Clemson University and their faculty advisory, Dr. Roger Liska.

The gathered members also elected the association's Board of Directors for 2011:

• President: Wayne Moore
• President-Elect: Hal Dillard
• Vice President: Robert Markel, GMR
• Treasurer: Chuck Childress
• Associate Vice President: Scott Presley
• Immediate Past President: Thomas Dillard, CGP
• President’s Appointee: Richard Powers
• Associate Director: Larry Hazenfield
• Associate Director: Lou Hutchings
• Builder Director: Hardy Peters
• Builder Director: Chris Bailey
• Builder Director: Alan Boone
• Builder Director: Mike Freeman, GMB
• Builder Director: Brad Thompson, CMB
• Associate Director: Michael Cox
• Associate Director: Jim Blume
• Associate Director: Tom Ward
• Associate Director: Eric Hedrick
• Builder Director: Dan Rawls

Please congratulate and support the 2011 Board of Directors.

Please also thank our Builder sponsors for making complimentary Associate Appreciation Night possible:

• Freewood Builders
• Hollison Custom Homes, LLC
• Harold Moore Builder, Inc.
• Sadler Company, Inc., of Greenville
• Addison Homes, LLC
• H. Dillard Co., Inc.
• Dillard-Jones Builders
• Quinn Satterfield, Inc.
• Gabriel Builders
• First Choice Custom Homes

Housing Recovery Expected to Gain Strength in 2011 and 2012 as More Jobs Materialize

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.

Read the entire article at NAHB.org by clicking here.

One of the markets where NAHB expects stronger performance on 2011 is Greenville. Read our earlier post on the Greenville market by clicking here.

Clemson Study Says Development is Consuming Trees

Clemson University has produced another report that places the blame for sprawl on development instead of on where it should be placed: over-regulation of land use by government.

Read the entire article at GSA Business by clicking here.

ABCs of New Construction Held at the Cove at Butler Springs

Rick Quinn, Quinn Satterfield, LLC

This week 25 HBA members visited The Cove at Butler Springs to learn about modern construction techniques and how to apply that knowledge to selling new homes.

The event was sponsored by Quinn Satterfield and New Home Star. Rick Quinn led a tour of two new homes in the community and discussed the latest trends and technology for energy efficiency, site development, and construction techniques.

Federal Construction Work Opportunity

To: HBA Members

As you may remember, the contractor (Hensel Phelps Construction) for the Shaw/Charleston Air Force Base housing projects promised to hold several industry forums in our state to solicit subcontractors for the AFB housing project in SC. The goal of the meeting was to try to meet the Air Forces stated goal of hiring 70% local subcontractors.

On Tuesday Hensel Phelps held two meeting in Charleston and Columbia, and added a third meeting in Sumter at the request of the Mayor in Sumter. To put it mildly the meetings were a huge success! In both the Charleston and Columbia meetings, it was standing room only, and we estimate that roughly 350 contractors attended the forums.

The Henzel Phelps staff made it crystal clear that they wanted and needed local subcontractors. They also indicated their flexibility with small contractors. This was much appreciated by the audience. Our members were pleased with the forum and encouraged that they might get a contract from Hensel Phelps. However, it is clear that subcontractors will have to be professional and meet their deadlines on the project.

The housing projects at Sumter/Charleston AFB are expected to begin May-June 2011. Hensel Phelps is still in the process of soliciting subcontractors. HBA members still have time to participate in the project, however time is running out. Hensel Phelps is planning to close the bid process in January 2011.

To participate in the bidding process it is absolutely essential that builders register with Hensel Phelps ASAP as a subcontractor! All communication on bid information will be generated by Hensel Phelps only to the registered subcontractors. Their plan is to have the letter of intent to contact with subcontractors done in late spring and be ready to begin construction in May-June time period. There will be three bid packages available on this project: construction, demolition, and civil engineering (roads, sidewalks, etc.). Most builders would be primarily interested in the construction package. The details of the packages will be sent by e-mail to registered subcontractors in mid-December 2010.

Please encourage any HBA member that is interested in participating in the AFB Housing project to register with Hensel Phelps Construction today. They will need your contact info – phone, address, e-mail, fax – and what specialty contracts (framing, plumbing, etc) your company is interested in participating in. The Hensel Phelps contact is:

Jordan Kragor, Chief Engineer, Hensel Phelps Construction Co.
970-346-7292 (O)/ 970-346-7236 (F)
JKragor@HenselPhelps.com

Julian Barton, CAE, Director of Government Affairs
Home Builders Association of SC

Saw Mills Cutting Lumber Production, Reducing Prices

Bracing 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.

Click here to read the entire article at GSA Business.

Call for Nominations for Associate Awards

It is that time of year again for you to recommend a member for our annual Builder of the Year Award and Associate of the Year Award. The awards are given to a Builder member and an Associate member each of whom freely gives of his or her time, efforts and participation in order to make the HBA of Greenville a stronger organization for all of its members. These members serve the industry through participation on HBA Committees and with special projects of the Home Builders Association. Each represents the highest level of integrity and honesty in the home building industry. Below is a list of recent recipients:

Builder of the Year:

• Todd Usher, 2009
• Rick Quinn, 2008
• Ted Smith, 2007
• Coleman Shouse, 2006
• Ted Smith/Ron Taylor, 2005
• Keith Smith, 2004
• Jim Gregorie, 2003
• Dan Rawls, 2002
• Clyde Rector, 2001
• Bill Fuller, 2000

Associate of the Year:

• Eric Hedrick, 2009
• Chuck Childress, 2008
• Tom Ward, 2007
• Scott Presley, 2006
• Lou Hutchings, 2005
• Richard Powers, 2004
• Sand Wiygul-Bell, 2003
• Robert Murphy, 2002
• Gary Gilliam, 2001
• Richard Powers, 2000

In addition, these awards also may be given to members of the association:

• Community Service Award
• Sales and Marketing Award
• Membership Award
• Spirit of the HBA Award
• Committee Chairman of the Year Award
• Rookie of the Year Award

These awards may be given to a political or community leader:

• Distinguished Service Award
• HBASC Champion of Housing Award

If you know of a member or other person who should receive one of these awards, please send your nomination to Michael Dey at mdey@hbaofgreenville.com.

New Report from NAHB Shows Most Single-Family Markets are Underbuilt

New research by NAHB Economics highlights the significant extent to which much of the U.S. single-family housing market is underbuilt following the severe decline in production that has taken place since 2006.

According to the authors, this "underbuilt" condition is present in the sense that excess or pent-up demand for new construction exists, compared to the long-run trend we would expect if housing, labor and credit markets were functioning normally and generating a normal rate of household formations. Focusing on single-family building permit data, the report shows that, while overbuilding did occur to a significant extent through the end of 2005, this condition was worked off soon afterward by record low rates of production that dropped to a million units per year below trend. Using a similar line of reasoning, the authors determine that a condition of net cumulative underbuilding now exists in 45 states.

According to the report, South Carolina is underbuilt by 5,600 units, and the nation is underbuilt by more than 2 million units.

The bottom line is, there is a significant pent-up demand that will at some point need to be worked off and begin to impact single-family housing production in a positive direction.

Click here to download and read the research report from NAHB.