The top two areas in terms of sheer volume of new residential construction - Atlanta and Phoenix - in 1999 got off to dramatically different starts during the first month of the new year.
Fronted by tree-lined streets, the neo-traditional-style homes in Live Oak Village, the first phase of construction in the master planned community, Avalon Park, in Orlando, literally resonate with the charm of small town America.
You don’t hear a lot about Indianapolis-based Giant Crossmann Communities, a public company that concentrates on entry-level and first move-up buyers in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas.
A central point of reference that argues in favor of a continued strong housing market during the next decade comes from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, The State of the Nation’s Housing, 1999.
Architect and town planner Andres Duany is now working to establish development ordinances that place Traditional Neighborhood Design on an equal footing with conventional suburban development.
When we look back at the turn of the millennium from the perspective of a few years, we may count Paul Estridge Jr. as a personal giant in the history of the housing industry: the father of 'the first mile.'