At the end of this post you'll find a link to an article about two home builders who are in trouble, Levitt and Beazer.

Levitt is a South Florida based home builder and should have no impact to consumers in this area. Beazer, on the other hand, builds throughout the area.

Beazer's credit rating has taken huge hits recently. It's cancellation rate is at 68%. (Meaning that 68% of the people who sign a contract to buy one of their homes eventually back out.) And they're restating earnings back to 2004 because of some irregularities. All this has the smell of a company in trouble. Read the article and decide for yourself.

I wouldn't be giving a large deposit to Beazer right now. What happens if they're not around to build that house? And how about the 1 year builder guarantee after you're in the house? And, should things get worse and Beazer declares bankruptcy, you've got no chance of ever seeing that deposit again. Like I said, I wouldn't do it with my money!

http://seekingalpha.com/article/49971-kiss-levitt-goodbye-and-pucker-up-for-beazer?source=d_email

Slate is running a series of articles this week based on a book by Witold Rybezynski. The book is called Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville and it explores the design, construction and marketing of a new subdivision. I haven't read the book yet, but it's on my list!

But the excerpts in Slate this week and I though you might all appreciate the chance to take a look.

The first one is entitled "Why Do We Live in Houses, Anyway?"

The second one is "The Ranch House Anomaly" and I'd actually dispute part of what he has to say there. Ranch houses, or what we call ramblers here are actually making a comeback thanks to baby boomers who no longer want to climb stairs. They're just better designed, more open ramblers than the ones from the 50s and 60s.

The third and final article is "How a Cornfield Became New Daleville" This article is actually a slide show showing how a subdivision takes place. It was the most fascinating of the three articles and definitely contains information pertinent to what's going on in our communities today here in Virginia. This is the article that definitely made me want to read this book.

Take a look at these and let me know what you think!