The nation's single-family housing market is springing back to life, and the luxury market is budding right along with it.

Luxury homes have received a healthy boost from historically low mortgage rates, increased buyer confidence and burgeoning interest from foreign investors looking to capitalize on favorable exchange rates.

One bellwether of the recovery: Toll Brothers, the largest luxury home builder in the United States, reported that fourth-quarter revenues (ended Oct. 31, 2012) were up 48%, and new orders were the highest level seen since 2006.

A Phoenix businessman who sold two stores six years ago has opened Carl’s Ace Hardware Store, according to the Peoria (Ariz.) Times. 

The businessman, Steve Herrgesell, sold Ace Hardware Stores in Tempe and south Phoenix about six years ago. He also co-founded Peter Piper Pizza. He opened the new store, at 75th Ave. and Cactus Road with his son Carl and daughter in law, Faith.

EnduraMax,a high-performance wall system by Oldcastle Architectural, is a sponsor of the Green Schoolhouse Series project, an effort to construct green schoolhouses across the country.

The first Green Schoolhouse Series project is a 6,000-square-foot school in Phoenix, Ariz. It serves as the launching pad for state-of-the-art green schoolhouses across the country on Title 1, low-income, public school campuses. 

Distribution America and the PRO Group met for their Executive Planning Conference Nov. 12 to 14 in Tucson, Ariz., to discuss new product lines, program launches and business opportunities. More than 400 distributors and manufacturers were in attendance, and almost 2,800 scheduled meetings were held between buyers and sellers.

E-Verify has found a champion in presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who would make the federal electronic employee verification system mandatory nationwide so that U.S. employment would become less of a magnet for illegal immigration.

But while E-Verify has become less error-ridden and more popular among employers than it used to be, it remains easy to fool, costly and widely ignored in states where it is required, according to a Sept. 25, 2012, report.

Hodgepodge of state laws

Housing economists, reading the tea leaves of recent building permits and home sales, are not yet ready to say, “It’s over.” But certain states are definitely showing a pick-up in business at both the builder and LBM supplier level. They say one of these states, surprisingly, is Florida.

Last year, the original 50 Home Channel News Hardware Store All-Star honorees established a high bar and a hard act to follow. But the 2012 crop rises to the challenge. This year’s Hardware Store All-Stars, one from each of the 50 U.S. states, have at least one thing in common: Ask them what makes them special and you can bet they’ll include “excellent customer service” in the answer. From there, every path to stardom is unique.

A franchise chain of West Coast supply stores for “indoor gardeners” is bringing its special strain of controversy to Washington, D.C., with a fourth location in the Northeast quadrant of the nation’s capital.

Suspects are being sought by federal authorities for allegedly stealing $130,000 worth of merchandise from Lowe’s by smuggling it out in toilet and sink boxes, according to an article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.