International Builders Show 2010: By The Numbers

The motto of Las Vegas may be, ‘What happens here, stays here’, but we’ve opted to break that hard-and-fast rule to share a few mind-boggling numbers coming out of  the International Builders Show (IBS), which took place in Sin City last week.

The state of the industry, in a nutshell: Small is the new big; houses are shrinking in size. Green is still king; energy-efficient appliances, including heating and cooling systems, will be this year’s big splurges for homeowners.

* 50,000. Estimated number of attendees, according to NAHB estimates.
* 100,000. Estimated number of attendees during previous “boom” years.
* 6,800. Square-footage of IBS’s planned showcase home, New American Home. In an ironic twist, and a sign of the times, the builders couldn’t get the financing to finish the project, so they lost it to foreclosure. Which brings us to the next number…
* 1,771. Square-footage of the New Economy Home, the New American Home’s replacement, 1/4 its size.
* 30. Years of growth in the sizes of homes, until 2009, when the average new home size declined.
*36. Percent of people surveyed who say they are planning for a smaller home, a 12 percent increase from last year.

Although the crowds may have been small, builders remained optimistic, something we’re on board with as well.

 

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