Tag Archives: international builders show

This is really exciting! The New American Home, the official Showcase Home of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), is entirely powered by natural gas and it has turned out to be truly fantastic! Visit www.nahb.org and click on Builders Show and then Showcase Home to see photos of the home.  NAHB also has a write-up which boasts of the new clean natural gas HVAC system. This home, despite its size and over-the-top furnishings, has received an extremely high energy efficiency rating, Gold Certified Green by NAHB Green, due in no small part to the natural gas appliances and the new AISIN gas heat pump. AGA and Southwest Gas are thrilled to be among the sponsors of this project. The new AISIN unit will be operational in the gas industry exhibit (#N2617) at the IBS show. I’ll have more on the AISIN and our exhibit later.

Everybody knows of the rough times in the U.S. housing industry. In 2005, the nation’s home builders built 1.7 million single family homes. They will end this year with 626,000 new homes and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is forecasting a drop to 501,000 new single family homes for next year. So, given this steep decline, what can we expect in terms of builder attendance at the annual convention next month in Las Vegas? NAHB expects about a 10 to 20 percent drop from the over 100,000 who have attended the International Builder’s Show (IBS) in Orlando the past few years. I think they will be lucky to go over 80,000. Still, that is a lot of builders and these are the survivors! There may be fewer but they will be of high quality. And natural gas will have a huge presence at the January 20-23 convention, the largest light construction trade show in the world. Follow this link for more information on the IBS and leave us a comment if you’re planning on attending. You can find us in the gas industry booth (#N2617).  Hope to see you there!