EDIT Please add more than a link. Links don't last forever:
Cash gap paralyzes Regency, Iowa's top home builder
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... 8804260344
Iowa's largest home builder, Regency Cos. of Des Moines, has laid off the entire staff of its home building business and left behind 300 homes that lenders and buyers will now have to sell or finish.
Jamie Myers, president of Regency, told 103 people working at Regency Homes offices in West Des Moines and Cedar Rapids on Friday afternoon that their jobs had been eliminated and that construction would halt. Myers said it became impossible for the company to continue after a lending agreement with Wells Fargo & Co. ended in December without a renewal.
Home buying and building have slumped in recent months, hurt by a slowing economy and consumers facing rising gasoline prices. Nationally, the inventory of unsold homes has created a backlog that reflects rising numbers of foreclosures. Iowa has escaped the worst of it: Sales in central Iowa fell 7 percent in 2007, according to the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors, compared with about 13 percent nationally.
Regency closed the sale of 958 homes in 2005, its best year But the company has struggled for months, and predicted in January that sales would fall to 550 homes this year.
Regency laid off 27 people at the start of the year and hired an executive to help restructure the company. In the previous two years, the company had used attrition to cut its home-building staff by 40 people.
Regency now has about 300 homes in its inventory. Some are finished and awaiting sale, while others are still under construction. Some homes are being financed by Regency and its 30 lenders, while others are being built by the company on behalf of individual clients.