Builders FirstSource (I just wonder why they don’t write it separately) reports ca. 12% turnover growth and 41% net income growth. Company manufactures structural products for construction industry.

Another company that is doing well is called Beazer Homes USA. They are a builder company in classic sense because their core business is that they build houses and then sell them.

Apart the fact that these real estate related construction companies are getting excellent financial results, another similarity between them is the nature of their business. Both companies are growing to be big national players in the States actually they already are big national players. This traditionally fragmented industry is now consolidating fast.

Kuhns Bros. Log Homes will return 30.000 USD to Cheryl and James Millward. Tom Kuhns, the President of Kuhns Bros. Log Homes, said that couple is going to get their money back.

The story began when Millward’s made a down payment on a log home package from Kuhns Bros. Log Homes. They had acquired a lot at resort village in Jenner Township.

So far so good, but now Millwards’ troubles started. They didn’t obtain building permit because their lot hasn’t municipal water. This is a good story on how you shouldn’t trust the sales talks of real-estate agents without a grain of salt.

Another interesting side note here is that Tom Kuhns states that log home contracts stipulate that down payments are non-refundable. That’s because down payments are used to cut the logs that come for the log home. In this particular case, cutting hadn’t started yet, so Kuhns Bros. Log Homes did just what they should have done anyway. Lot of publicity and for what price? Original article over here.

On Tuesday, Federal Reserve once again lifted interest rates. Although U.S. economy has been reeling in the aftermath of Katrina, it seems inevitable that rates keep on rising. Increasing interest rates mean increasing loan servicing costs, which leads into deterioration of capital value.

Fewer people will be looking into getting big loans, therefore now it’s the time to sell your log home or log cabin if you have been thinking about selling. After a year or so, we might live in a completely different market.