New homes sales people know them by sight. Data collectors. Nicely dressed people armed with clipboards. Sometimes they walk in quietly, collect a brochure and a price sheet, and begin counting "sold" buttons on their new home community's site map. If the sales person isn't busy or on the phone, a series of questions would be asked - how many sales in the past three months, what are the home sizes, what incentives does the builder offer, what options are offered to buyers in each floor plan, what are the homeowner's fees, if any?

Data such as this has traditionally been collected by the demographics firm, compiled into reports and sold in voluminous books to homebuilders, so that they can get a handle on their own market without having to do the footwork themselves.

Through the years, companies who do this kind of data gathering have come and gone, but it seems that no single resource has become more of a household word in this arena than The Meyers Group. Drawing tidbits of information from 2 million new homes in more than 25,000 new home neighborhoods, the company, founded in 1985, announced in a recent press release that it has now introduced an expanded profile which includes complementary partner information from entities such as BuildNet, DataQuick, HomeAid, and NewHomeNetwork, among others.

"The new design and layout make it easier for visitors and Meyers Group clients to customize meyersgroup.com as their home page, access our information and entire range of products and make purchases in a secure environment," says Mike Henn, Meyers Group president. According to the release, this is an expansion of their Meyers Data-on-Demand ™ product line to serve the data and information needs of local and national homebuilders in 75 of the top U.S. Housing markets.

Visiting The Meyers Group Web site, the number of services greeting first-time visitors to the company's Web site is formidable, including information for those in the budding stages of planning and building a new home community. This includes free data and analysis on certain areas, customized news on those areas, and the latest general information and statistics on market conditions. For the builder who already has a grip on its next moves, there are topics ranging from in-depth reports, the apartment market, demographics, land acquisitions and risk assessments.

Businesses to business exchanges are also offered, in addition to daily real estate headlines on the economy and markets relating to housing. The Meyers Group offers volumes of data at a time, or can limit its services to a few tidbits, such as a $25 report on a given subdivision, giving a competing homebuilder an edge on detailed information it may need to make big money, risk-reduced decisions .

Meyers' "In-Box" publication comes out quarterly, featuring what they call an "Investor Hotness Index". This is system that is designed to help builders and investors monitor supply and demand conditions in each market. As the residential real estate market continues to be demographically reshaped and housing statistics continue to be brought to the forefront for gauging economic health, information will become even more valuable to homebuilders all over the country, giving them a basis upon which to make decisions that may affect us all.