Green is the new Black! Rarely do you find someone these days who would suggest that they would like to live a less environmentally friendly lifestyle! Many Americans may disagree when it comes to the extent of the problem and the best solutions, but most agree that the earth’s resources are indeed finite and that approaching the use of these resources responsibly is the best way to go.  Ameribuilt is a Myrtle Beach custom home builder that specializes in affordable “green” homes.

Ten years ago most people associated “green homes” with ugly solar panels and low water pressure. That’s not the case any longer.

A “green home” is basically one that uses less natural resources, less energy and lower toxic chemicals. And today’s “green homes” don’t look any different from their traditionally built neighbors.

Visit Ameribuilt and find out how you can build your Myrtle Beach custom home in Paradise while doing your part to preserve Paradise!

Welcome to Southbury, MB’s newest and most unique community! Each fully customizable home features a front porch, rear 2- car garage, security system, irrigation system, 42″ cabinets & so much more! Come home to tree-lined streets, sidewalks, a community park, & super low HOA fees! Every New Southbury Home Will Be a Green Home Complete With Rinnai Tankless Gas Hot Water Heaters, Low E Windows, 14 SEER Heat Pumps, Energy Star Fixtures and Appliances, Water Saving Toilets & Faucets, Drip Irrigation, High Performance Insulation and Air Infiltration and much more! 4BR/2.5BA $254,900

Ameribuilt Homes, A Myrtle Beach Custom Home Builder is now offering “Green Homes”

Every New Southbury Home Will Be a Green Home Complete With Rinnai Tankless Gas Hot Water Heaters, Low E Windows, 14 SEER Heat Pumps, Energy Star Fixtures and Appliances, Water Saving Toilets & Faucets, Drip Irrigation, High Performance Insulation and Air Infiltration and much more! Contact us today for more information! Tired of cookie cutter homes with nothing but a garage door to greet you? Welcome to Southbury, MB’s newest and most unique community! Each fully customizable home features a front porch, rear 2- car garage, security system, irrigation system, 42″ cabinets & so much more! Come home to tree-lined streets, sidewalks, a community park, & super low HOA fees! Visit our on-site model to discover the difference for yourself! Homes from 3-6 bedrooms & 1350-2600 heated square feet!

Ameribuilt Homes begins every new project, not with the structure on our minds, but instead with the family who will be living in the home. It is this dedication to customer service that has made us one of the premier Myrtle Beach Custom Home Builders on the Grand Strand. Our attention to detail and quality techniques result in bringing your dream home to reality. Whether you are dreaming of your first Myrtle Beach starter home or the Myrtle Beach custom home of your dreams, let Ameribuilt Homes help you reach that dream.

The U.S. Green Building Council Awards Ameri Built Homes LEED Gold Certification
for Green Home Building

In Southbury subdivision off of HWY 707, 116 Southbury Drive was awarded LEED Gold by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for achievement in green home building. LEED for Homes is a national third-party certification system for energy efficient, healthy, green homes.  LEED-certified homes complete a technically rigorous process that includes a home energy (HERS) rating and on-site inspections to verify that the home is built to be energy and water efficient, environmentally sound, and a healthier place to live.

116 Southbury Drive is one of the new local Myrtle Beach homes that Ameri Built Homes has certified using LEED.  Ameri Built Homes is well-known in the area for their expertise in building LEED homes.  Green homes have substantially lower utility bills and may qualify for advantageous financing, lower insurance rates and government incentives. Through their commitment to green home building, Ameri Built Homes is helping to keep home ownership affordable.

Quote from USGBC National, builder, and/or provider.

“The U.S. Green Building Council is proud to help celebrate Ameri Built Homes’  commitment to greener living,” said Michelle Moore, Senior Vice President of Policy & Market Development, U.S. Green Building Council.  “Their leadership – demonstrated at 116 Southbury Drive is at the national forefront of quality; and their example can help us all to live better by reducing our environment footprint, cutting our utility bills, and coming home to a healthier place to live.”

Information about the home.

This home is located in Southbury subdivision built and developed by Ameri Built Homes.  Southbury is located off of hwy 707 by St. James High School.  Their model home is open daily from 10-5 Monday thru Saturday and 1-5 on Sundays.  Every new home in Southbury is built to both LEED and ENERGY STAR standards.

About the U.S. Green Building Council

The U.S. Green Building Council is a nonprofit membership organization whose vision is a sustainable built environment within a generation. Its membership includes corporations, builders, universities, government agencies, and other nonprofit organizations. Since UGSBC’s founding in 1993, the Council has grown to more than 14,500 member companies and organizations, a comprehensive family of LEED® green building rating systems, an expansive educational offering, the industry’s popular Greenbuild International Conference and Expo (www.greenbuildexpo.org), and a network of 77 local chapters, affiliates, and organizing groups.  For more information, visit www.usgbc.org.  

About LEED® for Homes

LEED® for Homes is a third-party certification system for high-performance green homes.  Developed and administered by USGBC, LEED for Homes awards points to projects in seven categories of environmental performance: Location & Linkages, Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Indoor Environmental Quality, Energy & Atmosphere, Homeowner Awareness, and Innovation and Design.  For more information, visit www.thegreenhomeguide.org.

Ameri Built Homes won the “Best in Category” award in the 2009 New Home Parade for their Green Model Home in Southbury subdivision off of 707 by St. James high school.  This Green Home as well as all new home in Southbury are both ENERGY STAR and LEED Certified.  Come by and check out these Green Custom Homes.

RE/MAX Southburn Lifestyles Wins “Best Interior Design”RE/MAX Southern Lifestyles, the company marketing Southbury, also won the ”Best Interior Design” award for their interior design of the Santee Model at Southbury.

This award winning home is available for sale.  A sale lease back options is also avaialble.  Contact Rick for more infomation at (843) 215-4663.

There’s been some good news recently for the local Myrtle Beach real estate market. Building permits  in both Horry and Georgetown counties saw slight increases in February.  Additionally, existing home sales increased nationally in February by 5.1%.  This increase is higher than economists had predicted and while most of this increase is attributed to the sales of distressed properties, Wall Street seems to be receiving the news positively.

As the Myrtle Beach real estate market gears up for Spring, innovation will be the key. As leaders in the building of Green Homes in Myrtle Beach, Ameribuilt is excited about the following offer:

For a Limited Time Every New Southbury Home Will Be a Green Home Complete With Rinnai Tankless Gas Hot Water Heaters, Low E Windows, 14 SEERHeat Pumps, Energy Star Fixtures and Appliances, Water Saving Toilets & Faucets, Drip Irrigation, High Performance Insulation and Air Infiltration and muchmore! Contact us today for more information!

Courtsey of BuilderOnline.com

Builder, in conjunction with Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, debuts its metric for determining markets with the best and least potential.

With most economists and builders expecting a national market decline this year, this may not seem like the best time to be selecting the “healthiest” markets in the country. Virtually every market was down last year. But a close look at the numbers reveals that some markets have way outperformed others during the last four years and are likely to continue to do so this year.

When the housing market stages its official recovery, the markets listed on the following pages are likely to lead the parade. It may take a year or more for the weakest markets–where burgeoning foreclosure sales are still pounding new home values, making building and selling new homes an exercise in futility– to finally stage a turnaround. We’ll present that list next week.

The healthiest markets have many things in common. Most of them are great places to live, either close to the ocean, mountains, or major universities. Most of them didn’t have a huge run-up in prices during the boom and aren’t experiencing rampant deflation during the bust.

To compile these lists, we analyzed the top 75 housing markets in the country. We ranked them based on population trends and job growth, perennial drivers of housing demand. We also examined what’s happened with home prices; many of the healthiest markets have managed to hold the line on home values. And finally, we considered the rate building permits, which may be the single best ongoing indicator of builder confidence in a market. We combined all these metrics to produce a score for each market. Here are the top 15, in reverse order.

The Healthiest Markets for 2009

15. Myrtle Beach, S.C.

2008 total building permits: 3,211

Though permit activity dropped sharply last year, Myrtle Beach remains one of the hottest markets in the country, especially when you analyze the number of permits pulled per resident. Only 263,287 people live in the Myrtle Beach metro area, which until recently had been growing its population by nearly 5 percent a year. That means builders pulled one permit for every 82 residents. A steady influx of people, many of them retirees, are drawn by close proximity to the ocean and 117 golf courses at last count. That has helped keep home prices steady; they fell only 10 percent last year to a very affordable $174,800. Most of the home building is split between Brunswick and New Hanover counties. Jobs are dependent on the tourist industry, though, and the metro area was rocked last year when a $400 million rock-and-roll themed amusement part, Hard Rock Park, opened and then filed for bankruptcy. Myrtle Beach added jobs last year, but as of December employment was decreasing at a 4.2 percent rate compared to a year earlier.

Click here for the complete article.

March 2, 2009 Myrtle Beach, SC-Today, 135 Southbury Drive was awarded LEED Silver by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for achievement in green homebuilding. LEED for Homes is a national third-party certification system for energy efficient, healthy, green homes.  LEED-certified homes complete a technically rigorous process that includes a home energy (HERS) rating and onsite inspections to verify that the home is built to be energy and water efficient, environmentally sound, and a healthier place to live.

135 Southbury Drive is located in Southbury Subdivision, where all of the new homes will be certified using LEED standards.  The home was built by Ameri Built Homes, which is well-known in the area for their expertise in building LEED homes.  LEED homes have substantially lower utility bills and may qualify for advantageous financing, lower insurance rates and government incentives. Through their commitment to green homebuilding, Ameri Built Homes is helping to keep homeownership affordable. In fact, the homes at Southbury are 35-50% more efficient than a standard home built to code, offering Southbury homeowners long term savings.

Quote from USGBC National:

“The U.S. Green Building Council is proud to help celebrate Ameri Built Homes’ commitment to greener living,” said Michelle Moore, Senior Vice President of Policy & Market Development, U.S. Green Building Council.  “Their leadership – demonstrated at Southbury, is at the national forefront of quality; and their example can help us all to live better by reducing our environmental footprint, cutting our utility bills, and coming home to a healthier place to live.”

Information about the home:
This home is located approximately one mile from St. James High School.  135 Southbury Drive is in Southbury Subdivision.  Design & construction of the home focused heavily on reducing energy use.  The five bedroom project features Rinnai tankless gas water heaters, low-e windows, high efficiency lighting fixtures, compact fluorescent bulbs and high density, recycled cellulose insulation.  Other energy efficient features include programmable thermostats, high efficiency HVAC, and a sealed thermal building envelope.  Water efficiency was achieved using dual flush toilets, automatic drip irrigation systems and high efficiency fixtures.  More information about green homes can be found on www.ameribuilt-homes.com

Enhanced Tax Credit Provides Outstanding Opportunity for Myrtle Beach Home Buyers

In its efforts to stimulate the economy and revive the housing market, Congress has enacted legislation providing a tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers (defined as anyone who has not owned a home in the last three years).

But time is of the essence for buyers who want to take advantage of this opportunity. Only homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009 are eligible

$8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit at a Glance

• The tax credit is for first-time home buyers only.
• The tax credit does not have to be repaid.
• The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.
• The credit is available for homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.
• Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full tax credit.

This credit not only applies to homes already built but also for first time home buyers that are building homes on a lot the already own.

For more information call Shawn Becker at (843)903-5229 or send me an email at abh@sccoast.net