Business and Professional Services led the way with 1,800 new jobs created in the month of February and 10,700 new jobs since February of 2010.  Professional, scientific and technical services continue to lead the job classification increases in this category, supporting the employment numbers with higher paying jobs.  Over 214,000 jobs are counted in the Business and Professional Services category this month, climbing back towards its peak number of 225,700 jobs in August of 2007.

On the other side of this coin, Construction jobs continue to fall.  Another 100 construction jobs were lost in February of 2011, bringing the total of construction jobs down to 53,200 Countywide.  Construction jobs peeked at over 95,100 in June of 2006.  This month’s decrease brings the total reduction to 44% in the number of employed people in the construction job categories over the last 4.5 years.

With positive economic news coming from many different sectors today, we can only hope that the strength in new employment will soon translate to new Construction jobs and the revitalization of the real estate construction industry.

The award was presented to Brookfield for its work in sustainable development and energy efficiency in home construction.  Our new Foothills community, Rockrose, is being constructed in Carlsbad.  The Eco-Savvy Rockrose is 35% more energy efficient than required by Title 24, the California Energy Efficiency Regulations for Residential Construction.  Rockrose is also focuses on water conservation, indoor air quality, recycling of construction materials and renewable resource use.  For all these Eco-Savvy factors, the Chamber of Commerce selected Rockrose and Brookfield Homes for their Environmental Spirit award.

Rockrose has been collecting other awards as well.  Home buyers and business professionals alike are recognizing Eco-Savvy design as the preferred way to provide high quality design, high quality construction and environmental sensitivity at an economic price.  Stop by and see for yourself why Eco-Savvy s the way to go!

A new report, prepared for the California Homebuilding Foundation by ConSol, a nationally recognized consultant on energy solutions for homebuilders, examined the historical standards for water usage by California home owners and then compared those findings to the usage under today’s building code requirements and also, the new California Green Building Standards Code requirements that will take effect in 2011.

Not surprisingly, the study found that homes built in 2009 reduced water use by 20% compared to home built in 1990. With the introduction of low flow shower heads and low flow toilets, water usage in new homes has been significantly reduced over the past 20 years.

The study also found that under the new regulations for 2011, new home construction would further reduce indoor water use by 21%. The study estimated the cost of these new regulations to be around $350 per home.

Landscaping accounts for more than half of a home’s water usage. 57% of a home’s water usage is outside the home. Irrigation of landscaping is the largest single water use at most homes. The new Model Water Efficiency Landscape Ordinance are part of the new regulations for 2011.

In terms of gallons of water saved, today’s new homes in California use 15,000 gallons less than homes built in 1990. A 2011 new home will use 12,000 gallons less than today’s new home inside the house and 26,000 gallons less water outside the home!

Additional water savings can be created through retrofitting of the 7.5 million single family homes built before 1980, when the first plumbing standards went into effect. By replacing original shower fixtures alone in a pre-1980 home with the new 2011 standard shower fixture, the average home owner can save over 22,000 gallons of water. By replacing one pre-1980 toilet with a 2011 standard toilet, the home owner can save another 16,000 of water each year.

For more details and facts about water saving ideas, visit the San Diego County Water Authority web site or you local water agency. Remember, whiskey is for drinking and water is for saving!

Brookfield’s new “Eco-Savvy” product line of single family detached homes is receiving very positive reviews from new home shoppers. The information trailer for Rockrose opened on January 9th. Over 550 inquisitive parties have signed up on the new neighborhood’s Interest List. And, over 35 prospective purchasers have begun the loan qualification process!

Are you environmentally tuned in? Are you focused on eco-friendly homes, energy efficient homes, and sustainable homes? Are you looking for environmentally friendly homes, energy saving homes, and green house designs? Then you may be “Eco-Savvy”! If you want all these things in your new home, and you want your home in a great school district, a coastal city and a new master planned community, then you may be “Eco-Savvy”! If you want all these benefits and you want them at a great value, the you are “Eco-Savvy”!

“Eco-Savvy” means sustainable and smart! “Eco-Savvy” means energy conscious, water conscious, air quality conscious, habitat conscious, renewable resource conscious and smart! Every home in the Rockrose neighborhood will be a minimum of 35% more energy efficient than required by the current California’s Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential Construction (Title 24). No other builder in San Diego is offering this level of energy efficiency in its standard construction homes! That’s right “NO OTHER BUILDER IN SAN DIEGO IS OFFERING A STANDARD CONSTRUCTION HOME AT 35% MORE EFFICIENT THAN REQUIRED BY TITLE 24!” That is why “Eco-Savvy” in smart!

In Rockrose you will find … water efficient fixtures, low VOC paints, stains and adhesives for air quality, National Wildlife Federation certified habitat landscaping, sustainable forest certified lumber, xeriscape front yard landscaping, construction waste reduction programs, in-home recycling centers, and the list continues to grow … that is “Eco-Savvy” smart!

Have you been by to visit Rockrose? What’s holding you up? You can find us on Glen Avenue in Carlsbad. Take the I-5 to Cannon Road exit, go east. As you cross El Camino Real, you can see us ahead on the left. Turn left on Hilltop Street and go around the traffic circle to the Brookfield Information Center for Rockrose. Stop in and see Julie or Loretta, they will be happy to show you how “Eco-Savvy” means a smart buying decision.

The new homes at Rockrose will range from a single story home with 2,116 sf to a two story home with 3,167 sf. In all, four different floor plans will be offered, with multiple architectural elevations and color palates.

The Eco-Savvy design and construction techniques will be previewed this weekend as well. You will learn more about our plans for conserving water, conserving energy, reducing construction waste, drought tolerant landscaping and irrigation systems, improved internal air quality and other environmentally sensitive design and construction approaches being offered in these eco friendly new homes.

The Foothills community is conveniently located east of El Camino Real, along Cannon Road, in Carlsbad, California. The Foothills community is also situated on a southerly facing, gently sloping, hill side. This provides homes sites with view opportunities, good access to warm sunlight and cool ocean breezes. The recreation center at The Foothills will offer resort level amenities and a great gathering places for new friends and neighbors.

The Carlsbad Unified School District will provide educational facilities for the children of The Foothills and is planning a new high school, along Cannon Road, just east of College Avenue. The new high school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2013.

Pocket parks, a recreational vehicle storage facility and a future commercial office building will also be part of The Foothills master plan. A city neighborhood park has been designed and graded just west of The Foothills, along El Camino Real, and will be developed in the future by the City of Carlsbad.

Stop by our Sales Information Center and learn more about The Foothills and our new neighborhood, Rockrose. Find out what it means to be Eco-Savvy and how you can customize your new home to fit your lifestyle while providing for fewer impacts to our environment.

See you on Saturday!

Great questions! And, we have great answers!

Rockrose, a new community brought to you by Brookfield is Eco-Savvy. Rockrose is a Carlsbad community in the new master plan of The Foothills. Rockrose takes green building, sustainable building and environmentally friendly building to a new level of awareness and implementation.

Today’s “green conscious” consumers are looking to reduce their personal and family impact on the earth’s health and well being. They are looking for environmentally friendly alternatives for every aspect of their lives. Eco-Savvy understands this desire and works with multiple aspects of new home construction and new community living to incorporate these goals into environmentally friendly living.

The recreation center of The Foothills master plan includes solar water heating and LED lighting to reduce the need for natural gas and electricity. You still get the same resort quality facilities, you just get them in a more Eco-Savvy delivery.

Rockrose will include many new Eco-Savvy features, starting with a whole house design system focused on increasing energy efficiency by 35% or more than current Title 24 requirements. Title 24 is the California state law that governs home design and energy efficiency in construction. California has one of the strictest energy efficiency standards in the United States, and every Eco-Savvy Rockrose home will exceed the minimum standards for energy efficiency by at least 35% (according to the current Title 24)!

Rockrose will also bring you other Eco-Savvy features, like water conservation measures and environmentally friendly building material selections. Many of these features will be standard in every Rockrose home. And, then for those “green conscious” buyers that desire to go even further …. well, we have some more surprises in store for you.

Visit our web site for more information on Rockrose and The Foothills. Then check back here regularly as we unveil more of the Eco-Savvy features and options you can find in this new home community.

Brookfield Homes has always prided itself on the quality of our home construction. We are known for our efforts to design and build quality homes. We view the Eco-Savvy homes by Brookfield to be that “next extension” of our quality construction program. Quality, value, design and now Eco-Savvy, Brookfield Homes continues to lead the way in new home and community construction.

Rockrose will offer new homes from the low $600’s with many new and exciting amenities. Watch for future posts as we begin to layout just how special these homes will be. If you are interested in getting direct information about Rockrose, please join the over 150 people that have already signed up on our interest list!

Meanwhile, if you are in the vicinity of El Camino Real and Cannon Road in Carlsbad, swing by and watch us as we grow! The new Recreation Center is framed and site work is beginning. And, as I said, the model foundations for Rockrose are in the ground and framing starts this week!

These two new requirements appear on pages 4 and 5 of Mortgagee Letter 2009-19, dated June 12, 2009. Now, to be honest, the letter also states that these new rules “…are effective for all case numbers assigned on or after October 1, 2009…”. That means, any projects currently under construction, with an approved FHA case number, will not be impacted by the proposed changes. Well, thank goodness for small favors.

Condominium homes are generally the first rung on the ladder to home ownership. They normally provide a more affordable product for move-down and first time home buyers. In addition, current land planning and greenhouse gas emission reduction initiatives focus on increasing density in urban areas to promote transit use and slow the impact of growth on the problems associated with global warming. It appears that HUD is trying to promote the reduction of condominium construction and decreased urban densities by making the provision of FHA financing for condos more difficult to achieve.

My plea is for HUD to reconsider their position stated in Mortgagee Letter 2009-19. Do not make affordable housing more difficult to build and sell. Do not take away the best product builders have to deliver housing affordable to the average citizen. Do not incentivize low density development because your new rules create such great hurdles for the construction and sale of higher density product.

Again, the pendulum has swung too far. The regulators are regulating for the appearance of control, while in reality, they do not understand the impacts they are creating.

The Framework discussion for the Committee’s recommendations focused primarily on Process and Procedure. In my opinion, the RTAC is focusing on a “bottoms up” approach for the CARB staff to process into a Board recommendation. That is, the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO’s) desire to provide CARB staff with an initial analysis of the expected capabilities for GHG emissions reduction focused on the “aggressive and achievable” standard outlined in the statute. CARB staff would then use empirical data on the relationship between travel and land use, along with existing Regional Transportation Plans (RTP’s) and Blueprints (regional land use plans) and the GHG reduction benefits from fuels and fuel efficiency to evaluate the MPO proposals.

CARB staff would then respond to the MPO’s with preliminary targets using models, off-model tools and region specific characteristics for their analysis. The MPO’s would be encouraged to comment back to CARB staff and in fact, enter into collaborative analysis using all available data, empirical evidence and policies to create the CARB staff recommendation on the regional targets for the CARB consideration. These recommendations would be released for public comment prior to the Board’s meeting and action.

This Framework seems to be gaining support among RTAC members and CARB staff. The four largest MPO’s have offered to begin some preliminary off-model sketch planning to provide CARB staff with some initial data input. The preliminary timing for this initial work is December 2009.

On the Procedural side of the RTAC’s recommendations, the committee is coalescing around the use of existing transportation planning models for early years’ analysis, with augmentation by off-model tools, like sketch planning. Supplementing these early year models and off-model tools would be policies and programs to enhance the opportunity to capture a maximum percentage of the GHG reduction potential. The RTAC will likely recommend the continued growth of modeling capabilities through a coordinated effort by all MPO’s, CalTrans, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) and CARB, with a goal of a consistent and transparent modeling capability within a 5-10 year time frame. In the interim, the MPO’s will work together with CARB staff to maximize the opportunities for consistency between the existing modeling formats.

Policies to be considered in the creation of GHG Emission Reduction Targets will likely include Best Management Practices (BMP’s) that MPO’s can utilize to augment their transportation modeled, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduction strategies. Such BMP’s could include Smart Growth Strategies, Land Use Measures, Transportation Measures, and Pricing Strategies. These policies are still being discussed by the RTAC and recommendations of specific BMP’s have not yet been suggested.

The next meeting of the RTAC will be on August 18th, at the Cal/EPA Headquarters Building in the Coastal Hearing Room from 9:00 am – 4:00 pm. The Cal/EPA building is located at 1001 I Street in Sacramento. The meeting is open to the public and will be webcast.

My time at PCBC was spent at each of the various offering. I attended the Opening Breakfast and was fascinated by Fareed Zakaria’s powerful insights into the world’s economical and political realities. He took the audience from the biggest international news of the day, right down to its impacts on our local economy and neighborhood consumers. He provided tremendous insight and understanding of the issues critical to our daily business decisions.

I celebrated the induction of six new members into the California Homebuilding Foundation’s Hall of Fame. I’m proud to say I consider Forest “Woody” Brehm of Brehm Communities, Layne Marcaeu of Shea Homes, Chip Pierson of the Dahlin Group and Jeffrey Slavin of HomeAid good friends and colleagues. Ray Becker of DMB, who left us too early last year, was also a good friend and colleague. I was pleased to meet and get to know Richard Oliphant of Oliphant Enterprises, a builder from the Coachella Valley. All six of these gentlemen are very deserving and great additions to the Hall of Fame.

I spent a couple of days working the exhibition floor. Sustainability and Green Building were definitely the issues in the forefront for most exhibitors and many home builders and industry members. Upgrades in photovoltaic systems were big attention grabbers. New forms of insulation, high energy savings devices and appliances, and sustainable construction materials were also well represented. Learning to be a “greener builder” or “greener developer” was an easy goal to accomplish.

Likewise, the educational programs were focused on delivering the “Green” message. From the way home builders design new communities, to products going into their new homes, to how we advertise and market our “Green” product, if you wanted to learn about “Green” PCBC was a great source of information.

Brookfield’s own, Lora Heramb, VP of Sales and Marketing, headlined one of the first educational sessions of the conference, “Building an Effective Homebuilder Brand Using Social Media”. Lora, along with Jason Baer of Convince & Convert and Jonathan Bailey of Bailey Gardiner Inc, lead a discussion and provided hands on participation in the use of Social Media tools to reach out and touch the next generation of home buyers. I mean, when was the last time you sat down in a meeting or classroom and the leader of the program asked the audience to “turn on your cells phones and computers! We want your participation in this discussion.”

PCBC turned 50 in 2009! “The New Age of Invention” delivered on all cylinders! I’m sorry if you missed the Big Show! We’ve come a long way from the Palace Hotel in 1959. But, we are just getting started. Mark your calendars now and be sure to attend PCBC, June 9 – 11, 2010. It is the best of the best, when you need to know what is going on in the Community Development and New Home Construction Industry.