We released the January housing starts this morning. Building permits were up in three of the six counties served by BIASC and down in the other three. But January is often a volatile month and activity that month is not a good indicator of how the year will go.
L.A. City, Corona and Irvine were among the top five jurisdictions for permits issued. Care to guess the other two? Hint: think hot. The answer is in the release.
The California Economic Forecast update for February is out and the folks at Cal Lutheran are, for them, downright optimistic. They point out employment and stocks are up, jobless claims are down and consumer confidence is up as well.
Of course, the recovery is brittle and a lot of things could still go wrong. But here's the concluding paragraph:
Nevertheless, the U.S. economy appears to be firing on 5 of 6 cylinders, the laggard being housing. And if housing activity picks up faster than anticipated, growth in consumer, industrial, and construction activity would accelerate this year.
Memorial Service for Horace Hogan II
A memorial service honoring the life of Horace will be held on:
Saturday, February 25 at 11 a.m.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
890 Balour Drive
Encinitas CA 92024
Map and directions
View Horace's obituary in the San Diego Union~Tribune.
It is with great sadness that the Building Industry Association of Southern California announces the passing of Horace Hogan II, a veteran California homebuilder and Building Industry Association leader. Hogan died Monday after a lengthy battle with cancer.
“Horace was an outstanding homebuilder and even more importantly, an outstanding human being,” said BIASC President Bob Yoder. “He gave freely of his time to help lead our industry through good times and bad, worked tirelessly for the City of Hope and other charitable organizations and always was passionate about good planning and great architecture. All of us who knew and worked with him will miss him.”
At his death, Hogan was a principal with LandArc Group, a private land development company of planned residential and mixed-use communities based in Carlsbad. He previously was president and chief executive officer for Brehm Communities in San Diego, and before that was division president for Ryland Homes, a cofounder of Pacific Gateway Homes in Aliso Viejo, and was vice president of the Mission Viejo Company. In all, he had more than 30 years of executive leadership experience in the homebuilding industry.
Under his leadership, these organizations garnered in excess of 40 regional industry awards for community marketing and merchandising excellence, including two Gold Nuggets and a Best in American Living Award. In addition, Brehm Communities was honored as 2006 Builder of the Year by the Riverside Chapter of BIASC.
In his commitment to the building industry around California, Hogan served as chairman of the Building Industry Association of San Diego, the California Building Industry Association and PCBC, the West’s largest homebuilding trade show and conference. At the national level, he was a member of the Executive Committee for the National Association of Home Builders, where he participated in briefings of industry credit market conditions with Congress, the White House, the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OTS. One consequence of these efforts was the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit at both the State and Federal levels.
Hogan earned a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. As a result of his many contributions to the community and his industry, Horace was awarded “The Spirit of Life” award by the City of Hope and was inducted into both the San Diego, and California Housing Industry’s Hall of Fame.
He is survived by his wife, Kim, and children Jake and Savanna.
The California Homebuilding Foundation is out with this year's inductees into the Homebuilding Hall of Fame, and BIASC is well-represented. In fact, four of the six new members are from Southern California.
The local inductees are:
- Aram Bassenian, chairman and CEO of Newport Beach-based Bassenian Lagoni Architecture.
- Wilfred Cooper, chairman of WNC and Associates of Irvine.
- Wes Keusder, the owner of Irvine-based Keusder Homes and last year's BIASC president.
- And Jeffrey Mezger, president and CEO of KB Home, which is headquartered in Los Angeles.
For more information visit www.mychf.org.
February 23, 2012