October 2014
October Calendar of Events
All Events held at HBA office unless otherwise noted 

2) Remodelers Council Meeting, 5-7pm @ Heritage Grill, 111 Veterans Memorial Blvd
10) Fall Golf Tournament @ Belle Terre Country Club, LaPlace, 111 Fairway Drive, LaPlace
15) Executive Committee Meeting  @ 4pm
14) CE Class: Estimating for Builders & Remodelers, 8:30am-4:30pm, Courtyard Marriott, 101 Northpark Blvd, Covington
14) Parade of Homes Committee Meeting @ 1:30pm 
20) Home & Garden Show Board Meeting @ 4pm
21) HBA Board of Directors @ 4pm 
22) Education Committee Meeting @ 2:30pm
22) NOEL Board of Directors Meeting @ 3pm 
23) Advanced Building Practices Council Meeting @ 12pm
24) Associates Council & Membership Task Force Meeting, 8:30am
28) General Membership Meeting, 5-7pm @ Mellow Mushroom, 3131 Veterans Memorial Blvd
Featured Events

Paul Sullivan,
NAHBRemodelers Chairman
Remodelers Council 
SPECIAL EVENING EVENT 

Thursday, October 2
5-7pm

RSVP to Lauren

Remodeling for Success

Join us for this exclusive opportunity to meet the current leader of the NAHB Remodelers. Hear his strategies on estimating, bidding, and overall management that have succeeded in keeping his business profitable.

 

Thursday, October 2, 5-7pm

Location: Heritage Grill, 111 Veterans Memorial Blvd, Metairie

Ample Parking Available

 

Complimentary for HBAGNO Remodelers Members

All Others: $10

Includes Drinks & Light Hors d'Oeuvres
Click for Registration
Fall Golf Tournament
Friday, October 10
9am Tee Time
Belle Terre Country Club
Click for Registration
General Membership Meeting
Happy Hour 
Tuesday, October 28
5-7pm

Mellow Mushroom, 3131 Veteran Memorials Blvd
$20 per person
Includes dinner & drinks!
 
Member 2 Member Recruitment Tools!


HBAGNO promotes Members Doing Business Members, and that starts with you!  This new webpage has a number of tools to help you grow the membership of the HBA. 

Don't forget! We're currently running a recruitment program that rewards members for recruiting. You will earn $50 for every member you recruit - but you must attend the next GMM after that member is recruited.
2014 Small Business Expo
Co - Hosted By: St. Charles Economic Development Dept.




River Region Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Business Expo to offer area businesses a unique opportunity to maximize their visibility.  
 

Reasons to participate:

  • Showcase your business' products/services while networking with potential customers in the BEST one-day networking available with leads and prospects surrounding you from the River Region Parishes.
  • Great opportunity to market new products, services and technology
  • Excellent way to get your name out and let customers learn about your company.
  • Business to Business Networking
Reason to attend:
  • What's In It For You and Your Company - It will let the local business community know that you are extending your hand to them in an effort to learn what they have to offer to you and your business.
  • FREE 15 minute Business Seminars hosted by LSBDC

Thursday, October 9, 2014
2:00 pm - 5:00 pm Expo
5:00 - 7:00 pm  - Networking

Edward A. Dufresne Community Center
274 Judge Edward Dufresne Parkway
Luling, LA


Cost: Members- $60 Table Fee(Table & 2 chairs)
(No table covers/linens provided)


Limited to 25 Business - First come basis

To RESERVE your table call 985-359-9777
or email: admin@riverregionchamber.org

 E-Classified Listing
Bayou Oaks Estates 
A 31-lot West Bank Subdivision, 
15 Lots Remain 

Will wholesale remaining lots in a package to a responsible builder. 
Attractive financing with release clause.

Contact Don Villarubia
504-258-7516
From Last Month...
Elliot Eisenberg
All Bubbles are Not Created Equal 
Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D.,
GraphsandLaughs, LLC


In early 2000, the S&P 500 hit 1,553 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ surpassed 5,000. Two years later the S&P was at 768 and the NASDAQ was at 800! In the process, $6 trillion in household wealth was wiped out. We now call that period the dot-com bubble. About half a decade later, we experienced the housing market bubble. Interestingly, the value of residential real estate destroyed during that crisis was also about $6 trillion. Yet the dot-com bubble resulted in a mild recession while the housing bust lead to the Great Recession. What was different? It turns a major culprit was which households suffered the destruction of wealth.

To set the table, ponder this: During the housing bust, retail spending fell 8% from 2007 to 2009, one the largest drops ever. By contrast, retail spending increased by 5% between 2000 and 2002. Clearly, the losses sustained during the dot-com bust had minimal impacts on household spending decisions and thus on the overall economy. Here is why.

The decline in home prices that began in 2007 was highly concentrated among households with very limited financial resources. As a result, these now much-poorer households dramatically pulled back on spending and in the process unwittingly helped usher in the Great Recession. Remember, retail spending is about a quarter of GDP, so a decline of 8% over two years reduces GDP by 2% -- a huge amount. It is as if these poorer households were the transmission mechanism through which the Great Recession got its energy.

Exacerbating and reinforcing this downward spiral was the role of debt or leverage. Remember, by 2004 or 2005 a large percentage of first-time home buyers had low FICO scores, sketchy employment histories and limited assets. To compensate, these Alt-A and subprime buyers borrowed heavily with their now highly levered house being their major financial asset. For example, among the poorest quintile of the population, 80% of their net worth is in their house. Even among the middle quintile, home equity is still 60% of their net worth. By borrowing so much, just a small decline in house prices could put these buyers upside down and wipe them out. Which is exactly what happened and is what turned a recession into the Great Recession. Between 2007 and 2010 the bottom 20% of the population saw their net worth fall from about $30,000 to zero.

By contrast, the financial losses sustained during the dot-com bubble were essentially walled off and had relatively little effect on the overall economy. This is because stock ownership is concentrated among the wealthy. As the wealthy have less debt and more assets, they could essentially shrug off the much larger financial losses they sustained yet not have them alter their day-to-day spending decisions. Among the wealthiest 20% of the population, home equity represents just 25% of their net worth. Moreover, depression-era federal laws make it hard to borrow more than 50% of the cost of stock purchases, thereby limiting the potentially negative role of leverage.

In short, the home buyers who bought in 2004 and 2005 had limited wealth and had more of it at risk than earlier home buyers. When the music stopped they were highly levered and wholly unable to protect themselves. That quickly resulted in (among other things) reduced spending, which shrank GDP and quickly cascaded into the Great Recession.
 
Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D. is President of GraphsandLaughs, LLC and can be reached at Elliot@graphsandlaughs.net.  His daily 70 word economics and policy blog can be seen at www.econ70.com.

HBAGNO Governmental Affairs Representative

Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans seeks qualified government relations representative to start immediately. Develop and maintain lines of communication with governmental decision-makers and staff on issues impacting the home building industry. Well-versed in local, state, and federal governmental issues and able to work with membership to achieve regulatory and political goals of the Association. Contribute articles to monthly and online newsletters on government affairs and other home building issues and obtain proposed legislation and regulations for analysis and review by relevant Association committees and staff. Candidate will also coordinate industry-related educational programs and other Association duties as assigned, including Political Action Committee (PAC) affairs. Experience with residential building issues, including multi-family, preferred. If you have the background to perform these duties for a fast-paced, multi-faceted organization and can step into the limelight with us in these critical times, please forward your resume to us by e-mail to info@home-builders.org Compensation package commensurate with experience.
NAHB Online Courses Logo
In This Issue:
Featured Events
Evening with the NAHBRemodelers
Fall Golf Tournament
Oct 28 GMM
Recruitment Tools
From Last Month
Online Education Available
Put Your Membership To Work
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Thank You to our E-News Sponsors!    

2-10

  

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HBAGNO offers our members the opportunity to list homes for sale for FREE on the Consumers Page of the HBA website.  

 

Click Here to list your new homes.


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QuickLinksQuick Links & Resources



* Under Compliance, click on Employers' Workers' Compensation Coverage Verification
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2014 Senior Officers of the Board

President, Brian Mills
Vice President, Roy Olsen
Treasurer, Floyd Simeon
Secretary, Mike LeCorgne
Immediate Past President, Scott Morse

2014 Board of Directors

Steve Albert
John Arms
Fernando Arriola
Stacy Blair
Nick Castjohn
Ric Darling
Charlie Fontenelle
Phil Hoffman
Jo Ann Kostik
Michael Kraft
Pierre "Peter" Lanaux
Ben Laws
Bruce Layburn
Frank Morse
Helmut Mundt
Lynda Nugent Smith
Rolf Parelius
Kimberly Rooney
Zach Tyson
Kirk Williamson
Steve Wobbema
Wes Wyman
Peter Young
HBA Staff Contacts

Jon Luther, Executive Vice President
Lauren Galliano, Director of Membership & Industry Relations   lauren@home-builders.org
Shane Gray, Accountant  shane@home-builders.org
Philip Thomas, Education Director & NOEL Program Director  philip@home-builders.org   

Member Advantage2012  
Did We Miss Something?
Please contact Lauren at the HBA office with any pertinent industry-related issues and/or professional achievements you'd like to share with your association members.

Feature Articles in upcoming issues of sticks & bricks or HBA's printed publication, the homebuilder quarterly(HQ), are FREE opportunities for HBA members to market themselves to 1,000+ industry professionals.

Click Here for Details and Submitter Deadlines