Sign of the Times, International Builders Show Showcase Home Can't Be Completed Due to Financing

Ouch, the building industry in Vegas is in trouble...

read this article from the Las Vegas Sun

Centerpiece house for builders’ conference a no-show

 

By Buck Wargo (contact), In Business reporter

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 (3 a.m.)

A Las Vegas house has come to epitomize the struggles of the homebuilding industry.
For the first time in the International Builders’ Show’s history, the so-called New American Home, which depicts cutting-edge innovation and technology in the housing industry, won’t be open for tours when the show begins in Las Vegas next week.
In a scenario that’s playing out across the housing industry, the 12,000-square-foot home, a project of Domanico Custom Homes, couldn’t be completed in time because private lenders who were financing the project withdrew funding, said Mark Pursell, a senior vice president with the National Association of Home Builders, the show’s sponsor. The home, which is about 75 percent complete, was sold at auction in December.
It shows the banking industry’s reluctance to lend money for the acquisition, development and construction of homes and why the association has invited 20 financial institutions to the conference to meet with builders looking for funding, Pursell said.
“What happened here is symbolic of what is going on in the industry,” he said. “It is a very difficult environment to finance home construction, especially in Las Vegas, which is, if not the hardest hit market, certainly near the top.”

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