The Housing Chronicles Blog: Latest article on builders taking on the banks now online

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Latest article on builders taking on the banks now online

For my latest column in Builder & Developer magazine, I covered the Building Industry Coalition for Economic Recovery's efforts to force banks to deal fairly. From the article:

With the federal government partially nationalizing the banking system, large investment banks a thing of the past, more bank failures on the horizon and nervous lenders still hoarding cash, it’s hard to predict what the future holds for the building industry. But if the recently formed Building Industry Coalition for Economic Recovery (www.pathtosolutions.com) has anything to say about it, the chaos in financial circles certainly shouldn’t be taking down developers and homebuilders with it.

The coalition, formerly named the “Homebuilders’ Coalition for Responsible Bank Behavior” (www.pathtodefault.org) was formed earlier this year in San Diego by a collection of private builders, attorneys and work-out specialists, and hopes to force lenders to play by a consistent set of rules versus what the group’s members say have been a series of contrived defaults that have led not only to foreclosed projects, but hibernating or bankrupt development companies. At the same time, the coalition’s 110 members (as of October 2008) – whom are now geographically dispersed across the country – are focused on assembling the type of intelligence required to warn other builders about to face similar circumstances.

Click here for full article.

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