Nohl Crest Homes - luxury homes; Tampa, FL-area

Nohl Crest Homes' 23 years of home building has spanned the housing slumps of the 80's, the savings and loan farce of the 1990s and the dot bomb induced real estate bust in 2000. But the builder will be flattened like a beach hut in a tsunmi by the back lash of this housing bubble burst:

"Will we be here a year from today? I don't think so. That's not going to happen."

That statement by Nohl Crest co-founder and president Kenneth Emery, straightforward as it is, actually belies the severity of this crash. With nearly 2300 homes to its credit Nohl Crest employed 68 people as late as 2006, the height of the housing bubble, but now only six remaining executives and salespeople according to Emery. Two years ago Nohl Crest sold 150 homes last year the number was 30.

Unfortunately for Emery, homes in the $500,000 to $700,000 range just are not selling these days. "People just don't qualify for those sorts of homes anymore." The problem is of course that they never did, but the lenders lent and the builders built anyway -- Nohl Crest Homes along with them -- until overbuilding pumped the bubble up, then defaulting mortgages punctured it. The ensuing implosion has crushed even powerful national builders like TOUSA and Lennar, leaving the smaller builders like Nohl Crest with virtually no chance. The Nohl Crest name will never heard of again, but for now they exist and say will honor commitments to remaining customers, so we list them here as an "imminent implode".