DuPont Protection Technologies recently announced the launch of the second annual DuPont Tyvek Dirty Work Photo Contest.

Entrants should submit original photos of themselves wearing a DuPont Tyvek garment after completing their “dirty work.” Those who enter will be judged on: the use of the garment, creativity, safety and how well the DuPont garments are portrayed in the photos. Grand prize winners will win $2,500 toward a dream vacation and runner-up prizes include $500 American Express gift cards. There will also be a monthly drawing for applicants where a $50 American Express gift card will be awarded. The online contest will run through September 30th. To enter, register online: www.tyvekphotocontest.dupont.com.

Chairman, Emeritus Donald P. Kennedy, helped bring up First American Financial Corporation from its humble beginnings as a one-office firm in Santa Ana, into a global FORTUNE® 500 company that introduced many of the technological innovations that transformed the title insurance industry. However, on March 24 ,2012 Kennedy sadly passed at the age of 93, and the company he helped build must say, “goodbye.”

From his efforts in helping expand First American from 1957 to 2006, the company’s revenues grew from less than $1.5 million to over $8 billion. Kennedy’s history with the company goes back to 1948 when he joined First American, when it was known as Orange County Title Company. He then served as the company’s associate counsel for three years after passing his bar exam in 1949, then was appointed vice president of First American in 1951, executive vice president in 1958, president in 1963 and chairman of the board in 1993. Kennedy continued to climb the ranks as he was named chairman emeritus in 2003, a title he kept after retiring from the board of directors in 2008. Alongside his position at First American Financial Corp., Kennedy also served as vice chairman of First American’s principal subsidiary, First American Title Insurance Company. He remained dedicated until he was 90 years old when he would consistently go to his office at First American’s Santa Ana campus. Dennis J. Gilmore, chief executive officer for First American said, “Don was a true visionary and a man of tremendous integrity who was admired by all those who knew him. While we will greatly miss his wise counsel and quick wit, he leaves behind a legacy of creativity and innovation that will always remain with our company.”

Lauren Felechner is the features editor at Peninsula Publishing. She may be contacted at lfelechner@penpubinc.com.

Only 54 Percent of Americans have more emergency savings than credit card debt: Only 54 percent of Americans have more emergency savings than credit card debt, according to a new poll released today by Bankrate.com. One in four Americans (25 percent) has more credit card debt than emergency savings and 16 percent have neither credit card debt nor emergency savings. Bankrate’s monthly Financial Security Index held at 97.3, unchanged from January and tied for the highest level since June 2011. Any reading below 100 indicates a lower level of financial security compared with 12 months earlier.

Surging gas prices threaten economic recovery: Just as the recovery is finally looking real, surging fuel prices are once again looming as a major threat to the financial health of U.S. consumers and the broader economy. The price surge has been particularly steep in California, in part because of maintenance at some refineries that make the state’s cleaner-burning gasoline. Statewide, average pump prices for regular gasoline crossed the $4 mark over the weekend and reached an average of $4.031 a gallon, up 5 percent in just the last week and nearly 9 percent higher than a month ago.

Apartment project increase in New Jersey: Rental apartment construction in New Jersey is poised for resurgence in 2012 with more than 2,000 apartments expected to hit the market by the end of the year. During the past decade, New Jersey’s coastline was transformed by a wave of high-rise condo development in areas like Jersey City and Hoboken. After the housing crash, builders put the brakes on adding new condos and single-family homes. The market for new single-family homes continues to be weak, but the pace of luxury apartment construction is picking up as builders look to take advantage of low apartment vacancies, higher rents and an improving job market. And while lenders are still skittish about financing large condo projects, real-estate developers said the money is there for apartment buildings.

50-year anniversary for Milgard Windows and Doors: This year, Milgard Windows & Doors is celebrating 50 years of quality, ease of use, durability, energy-efficiency and value. In 1958, Maurice Milgard, Jr., and his son Gary started Milgard Glass Company in a small building in Tacoma, Wash. Gary’s brother, Jim, joined the company in 1961. Within a short time, the Milgards diversified into aluminum windows. In 1962, Gary Milgard left the glass company to start an aluminum window fabricating company called Milgard Manufacturing. The company’s objective was to provide a reliable source of quality aluminum windows styled and crafted to meet the unique architectural requirements of the western United States. Since then, Milgard Windows & Doors has been committed to innovation in manufacturing windows and doors and providing the best products and service possible.

Architect making a residential statement: In the last few years, brand-name architects have made their mark on New York in an unusual way: by building apartment buildings. In generations past, it was far more typical for big architects to design office buildings for pricey corporate clients, while residential developers focused on floor plans and finishes, rather than buildings that make major statements on the skyline. But residential developers increasingly are hiring star architects to make bolder statements, like the apartment houses on Manhattan’s West Side. With prices and rents floating up into the stratosphere, the selling power of these names clearly hasn’t been lost on developers. The most recent example of this phenomenon is developer Gary Barnett’s marquee project, a 90-story condo tower called One57.

Lort Lauderdale affordable housing project to open: As 76, new, affordable housing apartments open in the Flagler Village community; the city is still trying to figure out what’s the right amount of low-income housing for the downtown and near-downtown area. Progresso Point, a $20 million complex developed by the Broward County Housing Authority and Reliance Housing Foundation, holds its grand opening. It joins the 101-unit Eclipse — which opened in 2009 — as affordable housing high-rises in Flagler Village. Other projects with hundreds of additional units have been proposed in the area, raising fear among nearby residents that the up-and-coming neighborhood idea they bought into might never materialize. The city issued a request for proposals to perform an affordable housing study so that commissioners can get a better idea of what is needed in the city and where.

Operation Homefront presents program: Operation Homefront, the national nonprofit that provides emergency assistance to military families and Wounded Warriors, launched a partnership with Chase that will put at least 100 Wounded Warrior, military, and veteran families permanently into homes this year. The bank is providing the homes and other support to enable Operation Homefront to administer the “Homes on the Homefront” program. Operation Homefront will provide ongoing transitional services to the families until such time the properties are actually deeded to the recipients. Operation Homefront and Chase will match homes in the bank’s inventory with deserving families served by the nonprofit. Some of the requirements that applicants must meet include: be active duty or have been honorably discharged; not currently own a home; be financially capable of sustaining the home throughout an initial transition period and beyond.

Surge of overdue bank repossessions expected: According to Bankownedproperties.org, some 600,000 properties in the U.S. are reported to begin the foreclosure process as the foreclosure industry begins to function more normally. Many of the properties that began the foreclosure process in the third and fourth quarters of 2011 will become bank-owned properties in 2012, and many will also end up as short sales. Lenders continue processing more of the 2011 delayed delinquencies, plus new foreclosures caused by high and extended unemployment. Homeowners with severely underwater mortgages push smaller but continuous surges of foreclosures also depressing home prices. Increasing foreclosures will likely drive foreclosure inventory higher, generating bidding wars with buyers, investors and real estate agents waiting for more choice properties to become available.

Builders highlight hidden costs of purchasing foreclosed homes: Home builders are switching tactics and confronting head-on one of their biggest nemeses: foreclosed houses that not only lure buyers away with deeply discounted prices but simultaneously depress the appraisal values of newly built homes. At a packed session at the International Builders’ Show, consultants and builders said that with gluts of foreclosures in major markets around the country — and more forecast to arrive in the next two years — the time has come to stop being passive and to begin aggressively educating buyers about the often hidden costs of buying foreclosures. In Phoenix, one large builder, Fulton Homes, has put together an interactive “foreclosure cost calculator” at http://www.fultonhomes.com/foreclosure-calculator that helps shoppers estimate the expenses they’re likely to encounter if they opt for a foreclosure.

Monrovia publicized for sustainability: The city of Monrovia has achieved “Silver” status as a California Green Community for its commitment to sustainability. Monrovia is one of only four cities to be honored by California Green Communities for its efforts. Representatives from the Environmental Media Association, Southern California Edison and Green Seal – founding partners in California Green Communities – will present the honor to the Monrovia City Council at the council’s meeting. “We created California Green Communities to showcase what cities are doing to improve the quality of life for their residents,” said EMA President Debbie Levin. “Monrovia is a leader among Southern California cities who are modeling sustainable practices for others.”

Partnership announce new affordable housing fund: Citi Community Capital and Rose Investments, a division of Jonathan Rose Companies, announced the launch of a $75 million fund which will make transformative investments in multifamily affordable housing along the Eastern seaboard. The Rose Green Cities Fund, LLC, will acquire and renovate existing multifamily properties with cost-effective, high-impact green technologies, and preserve their affordability for the long-term. The Fund will also evaluate select investments in the development of new, green, affordable housing. The Fund will target projects in high-demand, mass-transit accessible locations, focusing on locations in Connecticut, New Jersey and the Washington, D.C. metro area. This commitment by Citi Community Capital represents the latest in a series of transactions through which Citi has brought significant capital and an innovative approach to solving some of the community development issues.

KB Home’s mark at the Promenade in Dublin: KB Home and Charter Properties recently unveiled their plans at a community meeting for the new homes they want to build on land that was originally approved for commercial and public/semi-public use at the Promenade in the heart of Dublin Ranch Villages. The meeting, held at Grafton Station’s Cellar 9 Restaurant & Bar, drew roughly 30 residents. Assuming city approval is secured for this controversial project, KB Home intends to build 82 single-family homes without driveways on a 4.7 acre parcel by 2014. At 17.4 homes per acre, this new project would be about double the density of the neighboring Sorrento and look like a compressed version of the Roxbury community.

Portland housing developers struggle to meet market needs: Avesta Housing, New England’s largest nonprofit affordable housing developer, is building the second phase of its Pearl Place project, said CEO Dana Totman, adding dozens of units of income-eligible housing with WiFi, security and on-site laundry, to the existing 60 units. The development adds to the nonprofit’s expanding portfolio in Portland. Avesta recently completed the affordable Oak Street Lofts in the city’s Arts District. Those units are being marketed to artists as live-work space. The nonprofit, which built residential treatment facilities for the homeless such as the Florence House and Logan Place, also plans to break ground this spring on 16 townhouse-condominiums on Munjoy Hill.

Seizures threatened in Massachusetts with challenges: The highest court in Massachusetts is poised to rule as soon as this month on a foreclosure case that could lead to a surge in claims from homeowners seeking to overturn seizures. The justices are deciding whether to uphold a lower court ruling that gave a Boston home back to Henrietta Eaton after Sam Levine, a 25-year-old Harvard Law School student, argued in front of the nation’s oldest appellate court that the loan servicer made mistakes when it foreclosed because it didn’t hold the note proving she was obliged to pay the mortgage. “If the Massachusetts court said this defense works, that would have a huge ripple effect across the country,” said Kurt Eggert, a professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif.

Cases spotlight financial abuse of elderly: The recent conviction of a Delray Beach, Fla., loan officer for his participation in a scheme to persuade seniors to refinance their reverse mortgages should serve as a warning to the friends and relatives of elderly people about the surprising ease with which senior homeowners can be exploited. That the loan officer and his co-conspirators, including a title agent, were creating false loan applications and pocketing the money casts a pall over the lending business. And with good reason, according to the National Council on Aging, which ranks homeowner/reverse mortgage scams as the eighth most prevalent scam specifically targeting seniors. Yet rogue mortgage professionals aren’t the chief perpetrators of such elder abuse. Family members are.

Executives to gather at COMMUNITY 2012: The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) shared details about COMMUNITY 2012, the ALFA Conference and Expo, scheduled for May 16-18, 2012 in Dallas. COMMUNITY 2012 will bring together a global community of senior living executives for executive-level sessions, peer-to-peer collaboration and professional networking. Richard P. Grimes, president and CEO of ALFA said, “Each day these executives compete to offer the best services to seniors and their families. But, through ALFA and our annual conference, they have formed an executive community of their own to advance excellence and innovation for the whole business, and more importantly, champion quality of life for seniors and their families.”

Plenty of people are looking to renovate their already-existing homes into an eco-conscious atmosphere. And Carver + Schicketanz Architects had a major hand in doing just this for a young couple who wanted to modernize their home.

This “mid-century modern residence” in Carmel took its 1965 roots and made it a fresh, livable home. The couple implemented such green features as recycled denim insulation, a solar array and cement siding – thus proving its sustainability factor. This home is not only providing the couple with a guilt-free, environmentally-friendly place to live, but it is also capturing titles as Carmel’s first LEED-Platinum home.

The home sits on a small lot and is amongst only a handful of LEED-Platinum certified homes in the surrounding area. Although many homes have great ‘bones’ for a transformation, they just don’t meet sustainable and livable standards for this type of conversion. However, this home’s makeover included: radiant heat in the floor; the external wood siding was replaced with Nichiha fiber cement siding that lasts 50 years; new, whole-house water filtration system; a garage that was converted into a new, downstairs bedroom; no-VOC paints; new plumbing; new front entry patio and stairs; Blomberg aluminum frame insulated windows; amongst a laundry list of other implementations.

Lauren Felechner is an assistant editor at Peninsula Publishing. She may be contacted at lfelechner@penpubinc.com. 

If you mentioned the outlook for home building in 2012 back in 2008, few would have predicted another year of “the Long Bottom.”  All of the forecasts at the time of the crash assumed that things would be better in two years. Yet, now 2012 is upon us and not much has changed. In fact, the only consistent sustained trend seems to be macro-level turbulence.  The old “laws of the cycle” have disappeared and we are stuck in a world where we have no reliable model of experience to help us navigate — the real estate reality version of “Lost.” Not withstanding the challenging economic news, savvy industry leaders see this as the year to position for opportunities that lie ahead.

No one predicts a recovery for home building. Steve Friedman, Ernst & Young’s National Director of Home Building Services, agreed: “The only good thing is that 2012 can be no worse than 2011.” He also said, “Confidence can’t get any worse. Settlements (closings) cannot get worse. We are still in the abyss looking up. It will get better, and when it does get better it will be phenomenally better.”  Friedman sees ground up, below the radar recovery. “It’s not in the press. Look at Phoenix and Vegas. It takes time before the anecdotal data becomes empirical,” he noted.

There is a new kind of home building company that has emerged. It is equipped to compete in new and different ways shaping the activity that will take place in 2012. Bold action and departure from the norm have characterized the successful survivors and these companies will continue the process through 2012 to take advantage of opportunities in 2013. Take Orleans Homes, for example — George Casey became CEO of Orleans Homes as the company emerged from bankruptcy with new hedge fund owners. Casey updated me with, “We are a 93-year-old start up with cash flow. I look at the company as 93 years old and one year young.” George views 2012 as, “the second chance; a time to become the prototype 21st century builder and neighborhood creator … a fabulous opportunity to really do something different!”

Orleans retooled the organization, brought in purchasing people and land people. They pulled significant cost out of building their product and that translated into huge cost savings. Importantly, they reduced cycle time by half, and will halve that again. And following a trend seen across the US, they are focused on underwriting appropriately and making small land plays first. In terms of product, they are looking at new innovations, such as “pet rooms”, multigenerational living solutions, and abandoning the cookie cutter house they have built for decades.

Friedman and Casey agreed that 2012 will continue to exhibit significant pent up demand. “Core demand is only 300,000 new sales per year not 600,000 [the norm before 2008],” Casey added. “There is pent up demand from Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers who are still living at home. There are still job transfers and family changes…you can’t put a pause button on kids growing up and future aspirations. At some point, with confidence restored, this will all de-bundle the extra 300,000 households that are now going to rentals and parents’ basements.”

Also buck the trend of companies consolidating. In fact, the surviving — and potentially thriving — builders will continue to revitalize and gear up to compete in the following ways:

Be even more market niche focused by continuing to utilizing research that’s outside-in versus the traditional inside-out thinking.

Strive for operational excellence and fine tune organizational efficiency. It’s the year to think smart, maximize technological resources and carefully measure productivity. Decrease cycle times, get to zero defects, and tweak a top of the line sales team.

Be great stewards of capital. With cheap debt gone, recognize that equity capital is fungible and focus on creating better Return on Capital. When it comes to capital, homebuilders are competing with the bond markets on a global level — something they’ve never had to do before, but will need to in the future.

2012 likely will not have the upward trajectory we all have been awaiting. It is a year of prepping for 2013 in a bold, focused way.When the market does inevitably turn, whether it proves to be lucky 2013 as Friedman suggests, or later, companies that have been willing to rethink and retool their businesses will be the one ones who will lead a new industry forward.

Stepanie Pearson is a partner with Terra Search Partners. She may be contacted at stephanie@terrasearchpartners.com.

It’s pretty fascinating. If you think about the green triangle arrows that symbolize “recycling,” you can imagine how sustainable initiatives, practices and products all similarly feed off of each other as part of a larger green system.
Here’s an example. If you take the innovative building technique of solar thermal, why would you not have low-flow fixtures? Without a low-flow showerhead, a water-wasting shower would just be a wasteful shower with efficiently-heated water. The technologies together result in more sustainability and savings.

It’s the same thing with energy-efficient appliances and PV systems – it makes fantastic sense to have both one and the other. By utilizing something like a suite of appliances that significantly exceed ENERGY STAR requirements, you’ll get the absolute most out of your renewable solar energy.

One more illustration; a product like InSpire Cool Roofing can help cut peak cooling demand by up to 15 percent. But if you have a home that isn’t properly sealed and insulated, your HVAC system will be wasting energy all the same.

I think the power of this understanding – and action on it – isn’t that far off for the masses, do you?

Written by guest contributor, Jon Wierengo, vice president of marketing for The Tapco Group.

Recovery in Process: With surefire signs of positive data coming from the housing market, builders nationwide are feeling more motivated to get back to work. While the speed of recovery is questionable, newly released data has solidified builder and buyer confidence in all regions of the market.

As builders begin to pick up the pace in January, there is a heighten sense of builder confidence as the overall market and economy are working together fluidly. In December, employers added 200,000 jobs and lowered the national unemployment rate by about 2 percent. Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, was pleased to announce that builders are taking advantage of clear market forecasts and getting back to building after a long 2011. But, would like to see more market conditions improve over the next few months. “This emerging trend is allowing builders to put more crews back to work, and could be even stronger if not for the overly tight credit conditions that prevail for both builders and buyers, as well as the continuing foreclosure crisis and the challenges of obtaining accurate appraisal values on new homes.” Compared to year-to-date figures home sales are up 3.6 percent, according to Zacks.com . Additionally, as key functions of the market come into focus analysts will better dictate what to expect in each sector nationwide.

Evan Lancaster is an Assistant Editor at Peninsula Publishing. He can be reached at @elancaster@penpubinc.com