My brother and I have been in the home construction business for years. These days it has definitely gone into a downturn. California is a state where things are especially bad, because so many subprime mortgage loans were made here.
We’re not doing much in the way of new home construction, but we’re doing a lot of renovations in the meantime. That’s what’s keeping us in business, and things are going pretty well, all in all. Not surprisingly, an increasing number of homeowners are demanding energy-efficient features these days, like roofs that can accommodate solar power panels. It’s not just big businesses that are investing in solar power anymore. We regard the downturn in new home construction as temporary. It may take more than a year for a real change in that part of our business, but it’ll happen. We also think that more people will expect homes that are more energy efficient, so we are using this period to do some homework. We want to come up with innovative new designs for homes and look at new construction materials. We want to be ready when the economy turns around. We’re optimistic about the future; people will always need new homes.