Homebuilders Making the Best of Slumping Home Sales

By Emily Wood, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- New home sales reached record lows in February, despite a huge tax credit available to buyers, but many homebuilders are making the best of the situation and preparing for the almost certain rebound.

Jeff and Lyndl Hill are unrolling the plans for some new custom homes, and for their company's unclear future.

"We had to become marketers again, look at the Web site, look at the literature," Lyndl Hill said.

The Hill brothers have been building neighborhoods brick by brick for the last 30 years, but the recent recession brought major challenges and changes to the longtime business.

The brothers have recently been building fewer homes, and have looked for innovative ways to stay competitive. Now they've opened a brand new office with the hopes of a brighter future.

"If we get our office in a new place, new designer, new design center, we're ready when things pick up," Lyndl Hill said.

Even though lots of builders, like the Hills, are cutting back on new projects, there is still a lot of inventory available, and experts said it could be a while before the housing market recovers. February home sales were down eighteen percent in the Midwest.

"There's times when you're not seeing people walk through the door and begin to worry," Lyndl Hill said.

That worry is motivating small companies like the Hills to big changes, but the real recovery for them won't come until it comes for the housing market as a whole.

"Then when times turn around we'll be prepared to go," Lyndl Hill said.

The Hills built their first home back in 1978. They said the hardest time for them was the oil bust in the 80s, and if they could make it through that, they can make it through anything.

Experts in the housing industry said they believe the rough winter weather is partly to blame for the big drop in February.