Free Republic

VICKSBURG, Miss. (AP) — About 80 employees at Anderson-Tully Company's sawmill operation at the Port of Vicksburg will be laid off by Jan. 4. The company tells the Vicksburg Post (http://bit.ly/TMsjgp ) that the move has been in the works for two months because of a depressed housing market. Company president Richard Wilkerson says a second shift is being dropped...

Wouldn't it be great to think you wanted to live in a trailer? That you chose it above all other housing? Well, the time is drawing near. Today's prefabricated homes are architecturally designed and fitted with all the latest gizmos and gadgets. And there are lots of people out there who know it. Introduced in the United States around 1870, manufactured homes have been around for a long time, and from all indications, are here to stay. Standards continue to improve and units are now frequently built to suit. It's an industry that is well positioned, providing affordable housing on...

It's hard to not be spellbound by the sight of half of a new house slowly swinging across the street and gently coming to rest on a precast concrete foundation. Raise the roof line, join the two sections, add a decorative facade, tidy up the entrance and it's almost ready for occupancy, right down to the sparkling bathroom mirrors and kitchen appliances. But would you want to live in a house that arrives on two flatbed trucks? Or would you feel your home sweet home is one front step away from living in a trailer? A California businessman with Chicago...

Alejandro Salazar slumps into a cushioned seat halfway into the bus, looks out from under a baseball cap and thinks about a future more than a thousand miles away. He came to the Las Vegas Valley from Mexico five years ago to build houses, launching a run of $700-a-week paychecks that made it worth crossing the desert into the United States. But those weekly checks were whittled down to $200 over the past year; he sold his van and is returning to Aguascalientes. “At least I have family there,” he says, shrugging his shoulders. He has $60 in his jeans...

Imagine listing your home for sale, but there are no buyers. You drop the price. Again. And again. The house across the street's now for sale. And the one two doors down, plus a dozen others in a two-block radius. Nothing's selling, and every time one home is reduced, all are affected. This property used to represent wealth. Now it's a wealth trap. Most of what you have is here, and with each day passed, it diminishes. Imagine your first home - a dream in granite and stainless. You bought it from the region's largest builder, for 1.5 per cent...

McMansions are sprouting in the suburbs of Washington and Atlanta, in southern Connecticut and out West in Utah as an appetite for bigger homes just keeps on growing. One in five American houses had at least four bedrooms in 2005. That's up from one in six in 1990, despite shrinking families and increasing costs for construction and energy. Houses with five or more bedrooms were the fastest-growing type in that time, adding to the nation's consumption of resources and reputation for excess. "In this country, bigger is better," said Gopal Ahluwalia, vice president of economic research at the National Association...

SACRAMENTO - California homebuilders on Monday won the right to use less-expensive plastic water piping instead of copper, ending a two-decade-long battle against groups that warned of plastic's potential health hazards. Developers called the decision by the California Building Standards Commission a victory for consumers because it will reduce plumbing costs in new homes and when doing retrofits. "Forty nine other states use the product. We now have a 25-year history of this product in use," said Dennis Beddard, general counsel of the California Department of Housing and Community Development, which drafted the regulation. "It clearly demonstrates this product can...

KB Home may be the fifth-largest U.S. home builder, but it was No. 1 when it came to pay for its chief executive. Over the last three years, former CEO Bruce Karatz made $232.6 million in compensation. That's nearly three times what the chief executives earned at Pulte Homes Inc. and Centex Corp., which are bigger and more profitable. Among the nation's 12 largest builders, Karatz's closest competition came from Robert Toll, the CEO of Toll Bros. Inc. He pulled in $138.7 million over three years — a sum that Karatz outdid by nearly 70%. Karatz, 61, retired under pressure...

The doughty band of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reformers isn't beaten yet. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby plans to mark up a bill this week to protect taxpayers against the risky business of these "government-sponsored enterprises," and the question is whether he can coax enough skittish Republicans to pass it. The Alabama Senator's proposal is a quantum improvement over the non-reform that passed the House Financial Services Committee earlier this year. In particular, it would force Fan and Fred to reduce their portfolios of mortgage-backed securities, a source of great profit for the companies but also of significant...

Lubbock Habitat for Humanity joins national King celebration By RAY GLASS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Lubbock Habitat for Humanity will join a national effort to embrace cultural diversity, celebrate religious solidarity and honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. as it breaks ground today for its first "Building on a Dream" house. The 3 p.m. ceremony will be held on Dartmouth Street between North Vernon Avenue and North Avenue U in the Habitat community in North Lubbock. Jean Mallory, Lubbock Habitat church relations director, said construction of the house will begin after the group raises $40,000 and makes the final selection of...