Pulte

Pulte builds a house, sells it, then gives the money awayPulte Home Corp. has donated proceeds from the sale of a house to Children's House at Johns Hopkins.Jeb Bittner, president for Pulte Homes' Maryland Operations, presented a check for $235,000 to Children's House on Jan. 20.Pulte built the house on Governor Grayson Way, in the Governors Run development off U.S. 40, to raise money for the cause, and named it "Endowment House."Children's House, on McElderry Street in Baltimore, provides a temporary home for families from out of town who have brought their children to the city for medical treatment.

Trafalgar House Residential took top honors with two 1996 Awards of Excellence and one Model Home Merchandising Award when the Sales and Marketing Council of the Home Builders Association of Maryland honored Baltimore-area firms Wednesday at the Mechanic Theater.The 20th Award of Excellence competition recognized homebuilders in the Baltimore metropolitan area "who provide buyers with excellence in design, livability and value in single-family detached, single-family attached, multifamily and custom homes."

Honeygo is envisioned as an upscale village that will attract homebuyers weary of impersonal suburbs, but don't expect to see the nation's largest homebuilder plant "For Sale" signs there.Pulte Homes Corp. will not build at Baltimore County's newest planned community, a company official says, pointing to the strict government design guidelines on development there.That stance underscores concerns about the county's high-stakes Honeygo strategy -- which includes unprecedented guidelines and regulations that address everything from the layout of streets and the pitch of roofs to the location of garages.

A four-bedroom house under construction in the Governor's Run development in Ellicott City will help parents whose children suffer from life-threatening illnesses.Pulte Homes is building "The Endowment House" and donating the proceeds from its sale to the Johns Hopkins Children's House in Baltimore, which opened nearly four years ago.The Children's House charges families only $15 a night so they can stay in the city while their children receive treatment at nearby Johns Hopkins Hospital."Many people can't even afford that, so we're operating at a constant deficit," said Brian Morrison, executive director at the Children's House.

Long & Foster posts record sales in MarchLong & Foster, the mid-Atlantic region's largest real estate company, had a record March, with sales of $850 million on 5,027 properties. This was a 17 percent increase over March 1995, and was the second-best month in the company's 28-year history, according to President P. Wesley Foster Jr.The Baltimore region was up 17 percent, while suburban Maryland was up 12 percent and Northern Virginia was up 23 percent.Pulte is country's largest homebuilderPulte Home Corp.

Pulte Home Corp., the nation's leading homebuilder, named Cora B. Wiltshire president of its Baltimore operations yesterday, giving the division a leader who, unlike her predecessor, has a strong relationship with the regional president."

Sometimes it takes more than vision, dedication and faith to keep a dream alive.These three forces created and sustain the Children's House at Johns Hopkins, a Grant-A-Wish facility that serves as a "home-away-from-home" for children with life-threatening illnesses receiving treatment at nearby Hopkins' Children Center and their families. But the House still has bills to pay.To help pay the expenses of running a home to as many as 17 families at one time, the Baltimore division of Pulte Home Corp.

When the recession came to the home building business and competitors seemed to be racing each other to bankruptcy court, none of the analysts following Ryland Group Inc. was sweating. Just wait until 1992 or 1993, they said."They're sitting pretty for the inevitable turnaround," Barbara Allen, now the home building industry analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in New York, said in December 1990.But what a difference three years make. Columbia-based Ryland, the nation's third-largest home builder, is struggling as competitors surge.

He bends at the waist, he's machine-washable, he wears his heart on his tunic and his name is Jesus."It provokes a response. Either you like it or you don't," says Nancy Pulte Rickard, the doll's creator.And to those who feel the idea of Jesus' being dragged around like a common rag doll is sacrilegious, Ms. Pulte Rickard says, "Let's face it. Jesus is down in the trenches with us."Her goal was to make something that could be used as a tool to help children discover Jesus ("it's hard to hug air")

PITTSBURGH -- The way Bonnie Bandola figures it, Sunday is the worst.It used to be that her steady customers at Northfield News would just grab a Pittsburgh Press, and leave a buck and a quarter on the counter.Not anymore.Five months into a strike that has left Pittsburgh a no-newspaper town, Ms. Bandola is now a self-appointed tour guide of the out-of-town papers.To her, the Washington Post "is the paper that comes off in your hands," the Philadelphia Inquirer "is that nice newspaper . . . for Philadelphia," and the suburban dailies that are flooding the market "don't have a lot of news about Pittsburgh."

A mini-trend is in the making. Fueled by demand, affordability and demographics, smaller homes - especially energy-efficient and well-designed ones - are emerging as welcome alternatives to McMansions. A substantial group of buyers is seeking less: less house, a lower mortgage payment and price, a smaller utility bill. It also wants more: more flexible use of space, greater energy efficiencies, more functionality. "It is the core trend of the future. People have more economic viability with their homes going forward," said Richard Thometz, principal of Hailey Development and a home energy services company in Burtonsville.

Three single mothers who have for years struggled to find an affordable home will soon become neighbors and first-time homeowners. Each family, all Edgewood residents, will move into newly constructed town houses on a quiet cul-de-sac in Havre de Grace. While their mothers are chatting about the earth-toned carpet, the convenience of an upstairs laundry room and the sleek kitchen counters, seven kids are ecstatic about having bedrooms of their own and are eyeing the second-floor alcoves for computers and TVs. "I tried for 10 years to put my family into a good home in a great neighborhood," said Tina Dunker, whose two teenage daughters were already planning their bedroom decor.

Buy a new house in one of Pulte Homes' designated communities and get three years of free gas and electrical service and a $500 prepaid gasoline card. Make Engle Homes an offer it can't refuse (within reason) and save thousands on a new home. Move into a house custom-built by Baldwin Homes and get $8,000 toward closing costs or a buy-down on your mortgage rate. After a couple of heady years of soaring demand and accelerated building of homes, sales are down, inventories are up and buyers are canceling new-home contracts at twice the rate of a year ago. So builders are enticing buyers by offering to throw in extras ranging from designer kitchens to new cars.

One of the first national builders to make a foray into Baltimore in years with a project in Locust Point is pursuing another new townhouse development in the city - on the industrial shoreline of Westport along the Middle Branch. Pulte Homes, which has traditionally built in suburbia but began looking at urban markets about four years ago, could build 400 to 700 townhouses and condominiums in what has been dubbed "Harbor West," a Pulte representative said during a business forum yesterday.

Pulte Homes, one of the nation's largest homebuilders, has opened sales on its first development in Baltimore, a luxury townhouse community that will be part of a mixed-use development near Fort McHenry in Locust Point. The 121 townhouses at McHenry Pointe, with rear-entry, two-car garages, rooftop decks and views of the water or the city skyline, will form the gateway to Silo Point, a proposed $400 million conversion of a 1920s-vintage grain terminal into 380 luxury, waterfront condos.

About 90 visitors meandered among the buildings of the Carroll County Farm Museum one sunny morning last week. From there, they boarded tour buses that drove them through downtown Westminster while a guide pointed out landmarks and related local lore. The buses headed northwest through rolling hills and farms to Taneytown for a stop at a posh inn housed in a restored antebellum mansion and later a picnic lunch at Taneytown Memorial Park. Then came Carroll Vista, the final stop and the reason for the 3-hour odyssey.

Rock Oak Village Pulte Homes has nine homes remaining from the initial 31 built at its Rock Oak Village community. Base prices range from $190,990 to $205,990. The community, in Odenton near Arundel Mills Mall, offers public water and sewer systems, and gas for heating and cooking. Standard features include one-car garages, brick fronts, first-floor master suites, 9-foot ceilings and refrigerators. One of the three floor plans, the Stanwicke, has a 15-by-14-foot master suite with a bathroom and walk-in closet, a morning room, a kitchen, a 15-by-11 dining room, a 15-by-11 living room, an additional bathroom, an 11-by-15 bedroom, a porch and a one-car garage.

In the Region Wyman Park plans to repurchase up to 20,000 more shares Wyman Park Bancorp. Inc. said yesterday that it plans to repurchase up to an additional 20,000 of its 822,490 outstanding shares in the open market. Ernest A. Moretti, company president, said the board of the Lutherville-based banking company approved the repurchase program in view of the stock's current price level and the strong capital position of the its subsidiary, Wyman Park Federal Savings & Loan Association.

Pulte building home with sales proceeds for CF Foundation Pulte Home Corp. has broken ground for a single-family home, with sale proceeds going to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Dubbed "Pulte's Home for Life," it is expected to be completed in late summer. The home is in the Vineyard Oak North community near Bel Air. Several construction subcontractors and suppliers are donating their time to assist Pulte in reaching its goal of raising $200,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the company said.

Pulte builds a house, sells it, then gives the money awayPulte Home Corp. has donated proceeds from the sale of a house to Children's House at Johns Hopkins.Jeb Bittner, president for Pulte Homes' Maryland Operations, presented a check for $235,000 to Children's House on Jan. 20.Pulte built the house on Governor Grayson Way, in the Governors Run development off U.S. 40, to raise money for the cause, and named it "Endowment House."Children's House, on McElderry Street in Baltimore, provides a temporary home for families from out of town who have brought their children to the city for medical treatment.