Seattle Bubble

From the P-I: Quadrant Homes lays off 45 workers

Quadrant Homes, the Puget Sound area’s largest home builder, announced Thursday that it is cutting its work force by 20 percent in response to the slowdown of new home sales in the area.

The company will lay off 45 associates from its Bellevue headquarters and field locations in Western Washington, bringing its work force to about 180 people, the company said.

Luckily, the government is stepping in to save us all, so we’re probably at the bottom right now. Right?

(P-I Staff, Seattle P-I, 09.18.2008)

According to KING 5, Quadrant homes announced some major layoffs yesterday.

The slowdown in home sales nationwide has now hit one of the largest home builders in Washington state in the form of layoffs.

Quadrant Homes is cutting up to six percent of its workforce.

In an e-mail to employees, Quadrant’s CEO announced a formal reduction in force, brought about by home deal cancellations approaching 50 percent, forcing a production cutback from seven houses a day to five.

Quadrant Homes builds pretty much exclusively in the Puget Sound area, and is a division of local paper giant Weyerhaeuser. They’re the largest home builder in the Puget Sound.

In other words, it’s impossible to lay the blame for this on anything other than the popping of the local housing bubble.

(Don Porter, KING 5 News, 05.16.2008)