Can you provide a little background information about what makes Pulte Homes unique?
JB: Pulte is in a national production homebuilder. This class of homebuilder emerged 10 year ago through industry consolidation. We cracked the Fortune 500 list in 2003, and our sales peaked in 2006. The company is immune to foreign competition, which has been both good and bad. It doesn’t stimulate dramatic improvements or innovations as has happened in other industries. We still build houses one stick at a time, regardless of the economic market segments. Last year, we built about 46,000 homes. EL: With the current downturn in the marketplace, what is Pulte’s direction? JB: We want to build the highest quality product for a base price. Because of our national purchasing power, we can acquire those amenities a homebuyer might upgrade to after a few years. For example, we’ve upgraded our quality of our carpeting several levels, but we provide a smaller number of choices. The national program we have with our carpet supplier enables us to buy high quality carpeting for less money than w
