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CEO Blog
Matt Morrow serves as Chief Executive Officer for the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield, Missouri - a post he has held since 2001. He supervises a staff of five HBA employees, serving approximately 400 member companies. He serves as a frequent spokesperson in the media and in public appearances on behalf of the local housing and construction industries.
In the HBA's "CEO Blog," Matt voices the HBA perspective on key issues facing the construction and housing industries.
CEO Blog: Are We There Yet?
My wife Rachael and I recently drove to Chicago with our two young children. Being in the car that long brings a few repeat questions. Far and away, the question of greatest frequency was: “Are we there yet?” By my count the question was asked about 25,000 times on the trip (as if they somehow might miss our arrival at …
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Why Twitter sooooo fits the HBA – and you
Are you on Twitter? If so, waste no time – skip right to the end of this blog post and start following us (I know that sounds uncomfortably like stalking if you aren’t familiar with Twitter… keep reading)! If not, allow me to run through a little background on this Twitter craze. Like a lot of people, I’ve been hearing …
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Raising the Ceiling, and the Floor
I recently was invited to speak to the monthly lunch meeting of the local chapter of the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women about the current and future state of the local housing economy. After my remarks, I was asked an excellent question. The question was prefaced this way: Given the current slowdown, many of the pseudo-professionals (and non-professionals) are …
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I’ll be Twittering Today live from the Zanola presentation
Today is the HBA of Greater Springfield’s big presentation of the latest area construction forecast and market analysis, courtesy of MarketGraphics and Zanola company. I am hopeful that lots of HBA members will be able to attend. If you’d like more information on the event, you can read all about it at this link, and I hope to see you …
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‘Home-Grown’ vs. Growing Homes (Click Here)
Back in the 1970s, my mother annually planted a large garden in our back yard. I was involuntarily drafted into service to help tend it. I didn’t much care for the restrictions it placed on my whiffle ball field. On the other hand, I developed an affinity for home-grown tomatoes that I retain to this day. Times were tough. While …
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Count Your Blessings this Christmas
What a special time of the year this is. My hope and prayer for you and your family is for a joyful 2008 Holiday Season. For some reason, now even more than at Thanksgiving, Christmas always gives me pause to reflect on the blessings I’ve been granted. And, this blog affords me the perfect opportunity to share a few of …
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Share Your Biggest Bureacratic Obstacles with the HBA!
Just about every HBA member has war stories. Some “new” requirement added at the eleventh hour by a city or county staffer that threatens to blow up a whole development? Perhaps differing code interpretations by different inspectors for the same city? Or do you have other pet peeves when dealing with a building regulations or planning and zoning department? Are …
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Ozarks Communities: Open for Business
On Thursday, October 23, two Ozarks-area city governments each made their own overtures to the development community. At separate high profile events, each city had the same message: “we are open for business – ready to help developers build here.” The city of Republic hosted a bus tour of the community, toting residential and commercial builders and developers all over …
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Mandated Residential Fire Sprinklers: A Serious Blow to Housing Affordability & Safety
On the very weekend the Federal Government proposed an historic bailout plan to rescue the financial markets (and ultimately to get people back into home-buying mode), voting members of the International Code Council adopted an unprecedented frontal assault on housing affordability. In Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 21, final votes were cast for the inclusion of mandatory residential fire sprinklers in …
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Multifamily Housing ‘Matrix’ Needs a Re-Boot
A year ago, Springfield adopted a new system for evaluating multifamily housing rezoning requests. An intricate point system dubbed the multifamily “matrix” has been in use ever since. I served along with other members of the community on the task force that drew up the matrix. Throughout the processed I was one of several who voiced concern about the potential …
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