Kauppalehti – the biggest economic newspaper in Finland had overly positive look on the future of log building in Finland. This resulted in 16% increase in stock price of Honka B-share. Increase is out of proportion because the ownership of Honka is very centralized and trade volume is low so few sales can rock the price greatly. On the other hand, Friday saw exceptionally high trade volume, totaling 25 million euros.

I am not as optimistic, I think that growth trend remains steady, but there will be increasing competition at every market area. Globally low interest rates have saturated house ownership market and while big domestic markets are saturated, the growth can be found from export markets. My take on the matter is that log home company can only be successful by excelling competition and eating market share. What do you think? You can check Honka financial information at Google Finance. ]]> http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/rocketing-stock-price-of-honka-log-homes/feed/ 0 http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/log-mobile-homes/ http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/log-mobile-homes/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:35:56 +0000 Jake http://www.hirsilinna.com/?p=337 [...]]]>

I got curious on what there is available on log mobile homes in the net. I made a search with Google like this “log mobile homes” and results were scarce only about 576 results. I started to wonder is it really so new an idea to have mobile home, which is made of logs?

In theory, the modular structure that log homes have makes it possible to put them into pieces and back together again – movable solution so to say. Difference with traditional mobile homes is that log mobile homes often stand alone from the ground, while traditional mobile homes have wheels under them at all times. This frequently gives difficulties for manufactured log home owners who want their log homes to be classified as log mobile homes.

So what about those search results? I found following results helpful:

http://www.house-uk.co.uk/
http://www.mobile-parkhomes.co.uk/

These two services seem to be most appropriate, however, looks like they belong under same umbrella, so no real competition between the two websites.

Rest of the sites that come up in the search are basically junk sites or then vaguely related like photographs or real estate sites that offer opportunities to own something. It appears that log mobile homes are really unique and new invention. Or maybe I should try to use different keywords. Maybe later.

Later is now (7th April 2006), slightly different view to log mobile homes comes in form of mobile log homes. ]]> http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/log-mobile-homes/feed/ 0 http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/home-sales-down/ http://www.hirsilinna.com/log-houses/home-sales-down/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:29:46 +0000 Jake http://www.hirsilinna.com/?p=325 [...]]]> New and existing home sales were down in January from December. Analysts are seeing a trend in slowing home sales. Rising interest rates have contributed to slowdown but sales have not stopped altogether, but have just reached a plateau of sales activity. Even this slowed-down tempo of home sales will result into historically high pace of home sales.

Denim Pine wood maintains all its normal structural qualities after the fungus infection. Mountain pine beetles are especially fond of lodgepole pines so Denim Pine supply is mostly this sort of lumber. Naturally this limits the choice of raw material for log home builders.

Denim Pine has two excellent advantages over normal trees. Firstly, they have special colouring, which can tempt some buyers that are looking for novelty solutions with their log homes. Secondly, this kind of beetle-killed wood is dead and dry at the time of its cutting. This speeds up manufacturing processes and also lowers associated costs, as there is no special need for natural or artificial drying of the logs.

Please, don’t be too much alarmed. The title is there just to agitate a bit. The story begins as Plum Creek Timber Co. created a subdivision of vacation homes. Plum Creek Timber Co. is a private land and timber company. They own and manage natural resources and try to get best possible return for their investment.

There was lot of demand for beautiful vacation homes that resided at such a tranquil place. With this project, the company was so successful that they want to repeat the project many times over. This in turn, could spoil the nature that home buyers want to experience with their purchase.

Here is a link to the original article, go and check it out, discussion runs wild.

My personal experience with this topic comes in a four-year package. It took me four years to get building rights for my own log home that resides by the lake. I live in Finland, so it was very difficult to get anywhere with environmental authorities and legislation.

I tried to get special building licenses for my lot with multiple arrangements. Nothing worked as neighbors were complaining about possible esthetic and environmental damages. However, now I have my right to build and the work will start next summer (I will start special topic for my log home building project). What happened?

Legislation in Finland still works for the benefit of the masses. I lobbied hard about the benefits for having general subdivision and special environmental building code on the area. Slowly my neighbors started to see the light. If the lake would have several idyllic vacation homes, buyers would come and they in turn would mean more money for this small community. Together we applied for building rights and we got them. Now there is the danger that land by the lake will be over-built and results will damage the nature. I wanted to have my land in good use, am I selfish?

The latest financial report from Honka states that sales in the North America are all but stopped. The future doesn’t look too good either, the market is far from Honka’s manufacturing facilities, dollar is dirt cheap and the modern Scandinavian style of Honka log homes doesn’t appeal to American buyers.

Honka is the biggest industrial log home manufacturer in the world. The company is about three times bigger than their closest competitor and they have stunning design expertise and service attitude. However these strengths are not enough, because their price competitivity is shit.

So for me it is quite baffling that they are still trying to conquer the new world with the same old methods, which have worked so well everywhere else in the world. In my opinion, they should buy a local factory and build their sales network and service from that base.