Housing Market Gets Boost From Home Depot

New York-based Home & Textiles Today is reporting that with demand from building contractors rising and consumers beginning to step up investment in their homes, Home Depot said it expects the pace of same-store sales to accelerate in the second half of 2014.

The newspaper of the home textiles industry says that the Atlanta, Georgia-based home improvement retailer’s second quarter net income jumped 16.7% to $2.1 billion, or $1.52 per share for the quarter that ended on August 3, 2014. Sales rose 5.7% to $23.8 billion. Consolidated comps climbed 5.8%, with same-store sales for the U.S. operation up 6.4%.

"In the second quarter, our spring seasonal business rebounded, and we saw strong performance in the core of the store and across all of our geographies," said Home Depot Chairman and CEO Frank Blake.

Forbes Magazine reported on the Home Depot outlook as less a sign of good things ahead in the housing market than it was a sign that the company is just operating well.

“This strong performance gives us further confidence that Home Depot can handle a slower paced housing market recovery on strong execution,” said Citi analyst Kate McShane.

GET,LLC has worked on a number of federal projects with the home improvement retailer this year.  A strong outlook is welcome news for stockholders and expect the end of the year to get better for them.

To learn more about the other products and services that GET, LLC provides, please check out our website at www.get-guam.com or call us at 671-483-0789 to discuss solutions for your important construction needs-All Made in America!!!

Demand Grows for Green Homes

Locally, the Guam Housing Corporation is pushing an initiative to build affordable homes that will also utilize modern sustainable building materials and methods.  Five companies are attempting to "woo" the GHC to not only adopt these models as a way to build capacity on Guam, but also to introduce "green homes" into the Western Pacific and Micronesia housing marketplace.  This effort is in line with a growing trend happening all across the United States.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the authority on all that is sustainable in America, estimates that there are as many as 150,000 LEED-certified green housing units worldwide, a number that more than doubled between 2011 and 2012 and continues to grow steadily.  

In their LEED in Motion: Residential report, the USGBC details the U.S. states with the most LEED-certified homes, with California in the No. 1 spot followed by New York and Texas.

With recently warm and dry summer months in Guam and similar conditions across the mainland U.S.,  most of us are bracing for what we all can expect to be higher energy bills-thus the benefits of creating LEED-certified houses are even more pronounced and more attractive to homeowners from Guam to Rhode Island.

"Our homes are more than just spaces that provide shelter," said USGBC President and CEO Rick Fedrizzi. "Homes touch practically every aspect of our lives and are a critical element of our overall sense of safety, identity and community. Enhancing our homes' efficiency and resilience offers an extraordinary opportunity to further the revolution in sustainable building and living practices so that it ripples outward to our communities."

The USGBC says that LEED-certified homes provide 20 to 30 percent savings in energy and water use compared to code-built homes, and they maximize fresh air indoors while minimizing exposure to airborne toxins and pollutants.

The LEED in Motion report also explores the multiple LEED rating systems for different types of homes, including new single-family homes as well as new and existing low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise multifamily buildings. USGBC is also developing a rating system for existing single-family homes

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The USGBC Residential report also includes the ongoing monitoring of home performance and accomodation for the growing number of people living in cities, recognition of the top 10 countries for LEED, demonstrating the international growth of green housing, the importance of local policy in spurring the uptake of green homes as well as noting the important connections between green homes and occupant health and well-being.

Will Guam add to the number of green homes in America? The GHC should be commended for this effort and homebuilders and developers alike in Micronesia should pay close attention to the results of this program as the move to sustainable homebuilding takes hold in the islands and is added to the list by the USGBC in 2015.

To find out more about how GET, LLC, through our metal building partners at Ceco Building Systems, can help your next steel building or aluminum roofing project, give us a call at 671-483-0789 or our website at www.get-guam.com for more information.