Coming up, American Homestar Corporation Celebrates 40th Anniversary
But first…these stories.
American Integrity Insurance Offers
Premium Discounts for Newer
Manufactured Homes
from MarketWatch
AMPA, Fla., Jun 22, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — American Integrity Insurance Company announced today that it is reducing its rates by an average of 10 percent statewide for customers who live in manufactured homes that are 10 years or newer in certain non-coastal Florida regions.
American Integrity officials feel that newer manufactured homes continue to improve in value, size and strength thanks to improved manufacturing combined with new installation standards required by the State of Florida.
Bob Ritchie, American Integrity’s CEO and President said, “We want to underscore our strong commitment to the Florida manufactured home community. We are dedicated to these customers, and as fellow Floridians facing hurricane season, we understand this commitment must be driven by stability, professionalism and integrity. This market segment and manufactured home customers are important to us.”
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Clayton-owned development under way near Royal Oaks Golfing Community
By Iva Butler
The roads are complete on the first phase of a 50-acre subdivision on Morganton Road adjoining Royal Oaks Golfing Community which is being developed by a subsidiary of Clayton Homes Inc.
The project is a development of Wimbleton Properties, a wholly-owned Clayton subsidiary. Clayton is part of the Berkshire-Hathaway family of companies, lead by billionaire Warren Buffett.
Maryville Planning Commission Monday night granted final approval on 11 lots in Phase I plus a detention basin and common area on 5.88 acres of Morganton Reserve Subdivision.
The development is expected to be completed in three phases. Work on the next phases will start immediately once the previous phase is complete, said Gib Katron, who works in marketing with Wimbleton Properties.
Lots will average one-fourth acre, although some will be larger, he said. The exact style of factory built housing is still under product review, Katron said.
Katron said Wimbleton has several such subdivisions across the country, the nearest being Stonebrook on Highway 70 just south of Dixie Lee Junction in Lenoir City.
“It is very traditional in appearance, like a traditional site-built subdivision,” Katron said.
He expects homes in Morganton Reserve to be 1,400 to 2,000 square feet, with two-car garages and other amenities.
Phase II will have 30 to 35 lots.
American Homestar Corporation
Celebrates 40th Anniversary and 46,000
Homes Built
League City, TX (PRWEB) June 23, 2010 — Celebrating forty years in the single family housing industry is a milestone that few companies achieve, especially in the factory built home segment. But that is exactly what American Homestar Corporation and its 665 employees are doing this year.
From humble beginnings in 1971 as a single model home center on Spencer Highway in Pasadena, Texas operating as Mobile America and featuring Mickey Gilley in their TV campaigns, the company grew to become one of the region’s leading manufactured home retailers.
But when the oil boom went bust in the southwest in the 1980’s in order to survive, the company found it necessary to change its business model and go down a different path.
Company founder and CEO Buck Teeter recognized the market the company could serve was for REO services provided to lenders faced with liquidating manufactured homes whose owner’s had defaulted on their loans. According to Teeter, “we had the infrastructure and talent in place to serve this need and help the financial institutions reduce losses on foreclosed homes. We refurbished and remarketed thousands of homes during this period helping not only the lenders but many homebuyers who were in need of affordable housing at a time when the job market and economy were really bad.”
The market in the southwest soon began a gradual recovery that accelerated quickly through the decade of the 90’s. During this period of rapid growth the company entered the manufacturing segment through mergers and acquisitions and soon had a presence in 28 states with fourteen plants, one hundred thirty five company home centers, eighty five franchise outlets and a large number of independently owned and operated home centers.
With the growth and expansion activities during the decade of the 90’s the company became fully vertically integrated through manufacturing, retailing, finance, insurance and transportation and grew to be one of the largest manufactured housing companies in the U.S.
In the 1998-99 timeframe the manufactured housing industry was severely impacted by its own financing melt down as subprime loans made by many industry lenders went into default. This caused the mortgage backed security market for manufactured home loans to all but disappear. Given the severe impact on secondary market for loans, the lack of affordable financing for entry level homebuyers created a dramatic drop in demand and caused the company to retrench back to its core southwest and south central markets with two manufacturing plants, twenty five company owned Oak Creek Home Centers, Western Insurance and American Homestar Mortgage.
In 2008 the company acquired a third manufacturing operation in Lynn, Alabama, Platinum Homes. It expanded its product offering by entering the modular home building and commercial structures markets and offering the industries first 7-year warranty on its homes.
Following Hurricane Katrina the company was called upon to assist in providing temporary disaster housing to hundreds of families. Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike provided the company additional opportunities to provide permanent affordable factory built replacement homes across Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
For families with low to moderate income impacted by Hurricanes Rita and Ike in Texas, American Homestar Corporation is currently building replacement homes under a program funded by Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
According to founder and CEO Teeter, “while the modern energy efficient homes the company builds today bear little resemblance to the homes we built and sold forty years ago, one thing remains unchanged; the company’s commitment to quality and affordability.” American Homestar Corporation is primarily employee owned. ##
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