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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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08.12.2008 |
On Thursday, August 14, I will be presenting to the Cherokee Chapter of the Atlanta Home Builders Association with my friends and colleagues, Beth Marconi-Law and Don Evans of Evans and Law.
The topic is “If You Build It, Who Will Come? Applying Retail Science to New Home Sales.” We’ll show how consumer segmentation and preference information can be used to help builders and developers make better decisions about which customers to target, what product to offer, and how best to reach prospects. | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Christina Weitzman
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08.01.2008 |
 The July editions of our HousingIntelligence Market Reports are now available for subscribers to download. National subscribers have access to 939 metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas of the country from Abbeville, LA to Zanesville, OH. A local subscription provides immediate access to one designated market.
Not yet a subscriber? Take a look at what you’re missing: | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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07.02.2008 |
 Intelligence is a bad thing to waste. From our experience, too many otherwise rational professionals make housing related decisions by gut feel due to lack of information. That’s why our tag line is “Don’t just guess.”
In order to increase our exposure and help out local chambers of commerce and home building associations, we’ve elected to make a basic report on key housing metrics available for free. You can find them in our aptly titled “Free Reports” under Intelligence on our main site navigation. | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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06.12.2008 |
 Yesterday was the launch of the Southern Building Show in Atlanta. Since the show’s first full day is today, I couldn’t get a gauge for the show attendance yesterday. The Exhibit Floor wasn’t very crowded for the evening “sneak preview,” and none of the afternoon educational sessions I attended were standing room only.
Show organizers claim they expect 5,000 people to attend. We welcome any of those 5,000 to visit us in Booth 1331, across from the big duck. | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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06.11.2008 |
The Southern Building Show formally opens Wednesday afternoon in Atlanta and runs through Friday.
For those of you in the area, come visit us in booth 1331. We’re across from the AFLAC booth, so I expect we will be quacking up if we don’t get a lot of attention to distract us. | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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06.05.2008 |
We have added two new components to our Market Dashboard reports. On the National Overview we now include data on Existing Homes Sales, New Home Sales, Builder Confidence Components and Average Mortgage Amounts. | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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05.30.2008 |
 I enjoyed the opportunity to go out west this week and visit with Patrick Duffy of Metro Intelligence and HousingChronicles.com and Southern California developers and builders. I also participated in a one-day builder conference sponsored by Hyphen Solutions and Professional Builder.
My friends from Hyphen invited me to speak about my experience in implementing technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness of home builders. And then they let me partner with Patrick in delivering a state of the market presentation on Orange County, which was the venue for the conference. | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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05.22.2008 |
 I had to check the date on a new article in Professional Builder to make sure it wasn’t a late April Fool’s joke.
No fooling, though. The article seemed right up my alley by its title: “Keep Your Eye on the Data: Don’t wait for us to tell you when we’ve bottomed out. Watch your local data for signs of the upswing.” | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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05.02.2008 |
 Chris Plummer wrote a great piece for MarketWatch yesterday entitled, “Home-price data has its flaws; Market anomalies painting skewed picture, index producers acknowledge.” While I wish he would have picked up on my hypothesis that foreclosures are making Case-Shiller’s indices paint a more negative picture than really exists, I couldn’t have agreed more with the points made in the article. | | No comments for this item |
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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04.28.2008 |
 On Friday, I tried to explain the benefits of using data driven analysis for housing market research. As I said, the research should be focused on three critical actions: know your buyer, know your market, and know your competition. Most builders and developers get stuck trying to understand the buyers. The best way I know to understand your buyer is through detailed research using our Consumer Groups. With this information you can use the rich profile of the optimal consumer group to guide the design of the community, plans, standard features and options to offer. Leverage the lifestyle information to design the collateral, the model homes and the optimal promotional strategy. Need a prospect list for direct mail? Purchase a cost-effective, laser-guided list targeting the exact segments with good credit and the right income to afford your product. | | No comments for this item |
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