Dive Brief:
- It was a terrible way to learn business lessons, but the homebuilders working in southern Nevada today are leaner and tougher for having come through the recession, even if they had to start all over again.
- StoryBook Homes, for example, lost 90% of its lots as the market collapsed, but principal Wayne Laska says companies now have a better handle on their overhead and know how to work without ballooning debt.
- The list of the 20 biggest firms in Clark County, as ranked by the average monthly number of permits they pulled in 2005 and 2006 is missing eight names, firms lost in the financial storm.
Dive Insight:
The problems were biggest for private builders, often locals who had pledged their personal assets to back loans that they could not repay when demand crashed and they were holding steeply devalued land. They cut 70% of their workforces -- just one example of actions that set up the industry for the labor shortage that is beginning to appear today.