A Dismal Standard
A veteran builder bemoans the state of the construction industry today
Most of the roughly 1.5 million houses built every year are pieced together in a wasteful, antiquated way that has changed remarkably little in 150 years. While many industries have reinvented themselves, taking advantage of cutting-edge technologies and innovative management styles, home building has not. As a result, new homes are an overly defective product, many of which will be lucky to survive their mortgage...Those who end up in the trades often get there because they ran out of options. My brother is a psychologist who evaluates inmates for a state penal institution. He tells me that at least 75% of the convicted felons he interviews were previously in the construction industry. I've also read that the building trades have the highest industry incidence of drug and alcohol abuse. When all hope and good intention are gone, you always can go out and build somebody's home. With few young people getting into the building trades, many contractors are resorting to day laborers or illegal immigrants or, basically, anyone with a pulse. Most work in the trades today requires no qualifications or training.

Don't hand your house to a thief
Mortgage scams are like Baskin-Robbins offerings -- they come in 31 flavors. Here are three top choices of con artists and how to avoid them
If owning a home is the great American dream, then swindling people out of their prized possession is one of the great, lucrative American scams. Mortgage fraud is on the rise, thanks to the tremendous value that's locked up in real estate today and to the increasing number of people who are struggling to pay their mortgages.

The People's Lawyer
Professor Richard M. Alderman
For more than 20 years, Richard Alderman has devoted his career to educating the public about the law "€” on the basis that not knowing your legal rights is the same as not having any. Read more...

Choice Homes Complaint
Warranty... What Warranty Starting the day our Choice Home in Fox Run, Midlothian, Texas closed, 2-24-06,  our back yard was heavily damaged by two storms from rainwater drainage flowing from other lots... Choice Homes stated that they realized the drainage problem and committed to a retaining wall.  Then, after much whining and procrastinating on their part, they refused to construct the walls.  Read more...

Upon Further Review: Google, Lennar, KB Home, Pulte Homes, and Monster Worldwide
A daily feature available on SchaeffersResearch.com is "Upon Further Review." Every day, we'll focus on the day's action of newsworthy stocks that are generating a lot of attention. By digging into the stock's sentiment and technical backdrop, we hope to shed some light on the securities. Appearing in today's Upon Further Review are Google, Lennar, KB Home, Pulte Homes, and Monster Worldwide... While today's rally among homebuilders has been a nice respite, it's unlikely the group's losing ways will come to an end until the last of the bulls leave the building.

State body footed $1,000 lunch bill
When it comes to questionable government spending, most of us have heard of the $600 toilet seat bought by the defense department a few years ago. Here's one from Austin that may top it - the $1,000 lunch… A recent audit by the Texas comptroller found in its first two years, the TRCC spent $573,000 on public relations, including more than $90,000 for a Washington based PR firm and another $483,000 for an Austin PR firm…  Records show that Burson-Marsteller charged the TRCC more than $1,000 to review a speech over lunch, $645 to write a letter to the editor of the Austin American Statesman, nearly $2,500 to write an op ed column for the Austin paper and $1,400 to write a speech for delivery in San Antonio.  Video: Byron Harris Reports: State body footed $1,000 lunch bill

Campaign cashes in before new donation limits
Real-estate developers and others in the construction industry gave more than $100,000 to state Supreme Court candidate John Groen in the final weeks before strict new limits on campaign donations went into effect...Campaign spending in Supreme Court races has soared in recent years, thanks largely to the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) and its allies. During the past two elections, the builders spent more than $420,000 to help Johnson win a seat.

Virgin Islands Daily News
Bill revisits past battles over worker arbitation
Labor advocates say those agreements give too much power to the employers and should not be a condition of employment.  Serious personal injury cases need the time, processes and protections guarenteed by the court process, they agrue, and employees desperate for a job should not be forced to sign away those protections.  Read More...

Monroe couple sues builder over construction problems
A couple from the Chestnut Green development has filed a class-action suit against developer K. Hovnanian Southern NJ LLC, alleging faulty construction of their heating ventilation/air conditioning systems.

Sandra Bullock Recalls Housing Nightmare
Sandra Bullock was thrilled when she got behind a bulldozer and demolished her multi-million dollar mansion after being duped by a shady construction contractor. The star hired M.B. "Benny" Daneshjou to build her $6.5 million mansion in Austin, Texas, only to find it unsafe to live in.  

Accused Developer To Pay $276,750
Faced with a steep fine for violating Montgomery County regulations, one of the region's largest home builders found a way to keep its record clean: Pay more. Ryan Homes agreed to pay $276,750 to avoid admitting wrongdoing for building townhouses higher than the county allows in Silver Spring. The company had originally faced a $92,250 penalty and citation.

Real estate agent tangles with home builder Lennar over allegedly inferior construction
Martin County real estate agent is taking on home building titan Lennar Corp. of Miami in a dispute that's getting uglier by the day. Mike Morgan of Stuart alleges inferior construction in Lennar's Martin's Crossing development. Morgan said a client hired a home inspector shortly before he was to close on a Lennar home, and the inspector found an improperly installed roof and other problems, Morgan said. Other Lennar homes in the project had similar shortcomings, he said. "This is all visible stuff that any inspector could see."

N.J. lawmakers react to new-home nightmares
Lawmakers in New Jersey are planning to change how developers build and buyers purchase new homes in reaction to frightening tales of shabby construction... The committee is taking up the issue after a state investigative agency reported bewildering episodes in recent years of watery, tilted, badly measured, ill-fitted, leaky and fire-prone new-home construction.

Foreclosures rising with debt, job losses
Nationally, foreclosures are up 38 percent, higher than in any quarter of last year, property tracker RealtyTrac said.The numbers are even grimmer in the Midwest. Michigan and Ohio, battered by automotive-related job losses, together recorded 45,000 mortgages entering some stage of foreclosure in the first quarter. Those are increases of 91 percent and 39 percent, respectively, compared with last year's fourth quarter. There are many reasons for the growing number of defaults, and there are suggestions that the foreclosure trend may soon worsen.