While there's nothing wrong with growth and expansion, many in the home-building industry agree that the more competition there is, the healthier the market is as a whole and the better end product and service consumers receive.

Numerous reasons have been attributed to the decline of home builders in the Las Vegas Valley: construction defect lawsuits, the difficulty to obtain insurance, the rising costs of business including the rising cost of land and large builders often make buyout offers the small guys sometimes can't refuse.

The number of home builders that built five or more homes in the valley peaked at 179 in 1996, according to the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association. Since then the industry has experienced a 43 percent decline in Las Vegas-area home builders.

Now there are 102 home building companies in the valley, the association reported.

That still might sound like a lot until you consider the top 10 builders comprise 60 percent of all the new homes that closed escrow in 2003. Of those builders, two -- KB Home and Pulte Homes (along with its Del Webb brand) totaled almost 25 percent of the total market place, according to Home Builders Research Inc.

"Government regulations are phenomenal; getting land is hard. It's a challenging marketplace," said Monica Caruso, spokeswoman for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association.

Despite those daunting numbers and challenges, former KB Home executive Wayne Laska has opened up a small private home-building company, with his wife, Catherine, in Las Vegas.

The story behind StoryBook Homes and why Wayne Laska stayed in Las Vegas to go up against the big boys is unique -- and one Laska hopes won't have an ending.

Laska started working for Lewis Homes -- a large private home builder -- in 1985 as a relief salesman and was with the company until 1999 when it was acquired by KB Home -- a public company. He stayed on with the company as a vice president of sales but left in August 2002.

"In 2001 my 3 1/2-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer and he was going to have to go through chemotherapy, radiation and surgery," Laska said. "We started re-evaluating life. So much had changed with the companies."

Laska chose to quit, looking for a balance in his life between family and work.

Shortly after he left KB Home, his son's cancer went into remission and the Laskas decided to start their own home-building company with an emphasis on family and achieving a balance between work and career.

The idea to start a private home-building company had actually been planted in the back of Laska's mind when he still worked for Lewis Homes.

Not long before the company was bought by KB Home, Laska was driving on Interstate 15 near Oakey Boulevard. A row of oleander bushes along the freeway had just been torn down to make way for freeway construction, exposing a mural for a nearby community built in the 1960s.

"They were protecting a mural that said Storybook Homes," Laska said. "I thought that was a great name for a home building company, it congers up a sense of family, reading to your kids," Laska said.

Seven years after first seeing the mural and almost two years after founding StoryBook Homes, Laska's company celebrated the closing of its first home this month.

StoryBook Homes has two communities now open, with a total of 92 homes, with prices starting at $250,000 -- almost $10,000 less than the median new home price in August. Five more communities, with 25 homes to 135 homes each, are set to open next year. One community, Orchard Classics, has sold out of its 24 homes.

The company also recently bought an old mobile home park off of Lake Mead Boulevard east of Pecos Road and plans to build lower-priced homes on the cleared lot.

Laska hopes to fill a niche market that has largely disappeared in the past year as home prices have gone up. That niche is lower-priced, entry-level homes.

"We want to build as many homes as we can, as long as they are done in a quality way, as long as they are done right," he said. "We have no business plan that says we have to do 300 homes or you're fired."

Laska said he plans to fight problems that have led to the demise of other small builders by reverting back to the basics: focusing on customer service.

"Most customers don't want to sue their builders," he said. "They do so out of sheer frustration (with) not getting their problems addressed."

He said addressing customer service issues in a timely fashion, leads to happy customers and ultimately leads to the ability to get -- and keep -- insurance.

Also in Laska's favor is that he's worked for the biggest home-building company in the Las Vegas Valley, giving him a huge competitive advantage.

"I've worked for a public company, and I've worked for a big company," he said. "I know how they think and I know what their margins are."

Laska also has been searching out small infill sites, which can often be less expensive than land in the suburbs. While infill sites are often too small for a public builder to make a profit on, they allow StoryBook Homes to offer competitive and lower prices.

"With the prices of new homes approaching $300,000 and above, we want to stay in the lower prices so we can sell to families," he said.

In other news

• Local retailers may notice that consumers are a bit more Scrooge-like in their spending this holiday season. Ernst & Young LLP Americas Retail and Consumer Products Group reported that higher prices at the gas pump, a slight rise in unemployment and growing consumer debt levels could affect sales in the upcoming holiday season.

"This should be another healthy holiday season, but higher prices at the pump have a twofold effect: higher distribution costs for suppliers and retailers and less disposable income for consumers," Jay McIntosh, Americas director of retail and consumer products said in a statement.

Apparel and consumer electronics are predicted to be the best performing segments, while Internet and gift card sales will continue to grow.

• Gemstone Development closed escrow on 49 acres, on South Las Vegas Boulevard, for $34.8 million. The parcel is on the west side of Las Vegas Boulevard immediately to the south of the South Coast Casino and Grand View time share sites and north of a 50 acre parcel owned by Station Casinos. Plans for the site have not been announced.

In a separate transaction, Gemstone Development announced that it secured a $105 million construction loan for the construction of Manhattan Condominiums, a complex of mid-rise buildings at Las Vegas Boulevard and Serene Avenue.

Henderson-based Tharaldson Financial Group Inc. is providing all of the construction and project financing requirements for the first two phases of the project. Construction already has begun.

• Michael's Arts and Crafts will relocate its store at 2550 S. Decatur Boulevard at Sahara Avenue to Charleston Boulevard and Decatur. The company said it needed to relocate to a larger building. A date has not been set for the new store opening. There are seven Michael's stores in the Las Vegas area.

• SP Sahara Development LLC, in a joint venture with CB Richard Ellis Strategic Partners III, The Fifield Cos. and ABF Inc. closed escrow this month on 3.86 acres for $18.5 million, said Steven Fink, of Real Estate Consulting Services, who represented the buyer. The land is near the northeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue in the city of Las Vegas. The seller was ABF Inc., represented by Real Estate Consulting Services and Ron Hurst of ASF Realty & Investments Inc.

Plans call for two 40-story condo towers, to be called the Sahara Towers. Construction is expected to start in Spring 2005 with completion in 2007.

• The Southern Nevada Home Builders Association will have its Builders Show, co-sponsored by Southwest Gas Corp. and Las Vegas Housing Outlook March 1 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

This is the first time the local builders show has been at the MGM Grand. This is also the first time the Las Vegas Housing Outlook, featuring Home Builders Research Inc. President Dennis Smith and local real estate expert Richard Lee, will be incorporated into the show.

• Tommy Bahama will open two stores, a Tommy Bahama's emporium and an Indigo Palms store in the Forum Shop expansion. The stores plan to open Oct. 22. This will be the third Tommy Bahama location in Las Vegas.

Indigo Palms is a concept store that will carry casual denim and related sportwear for men and women. It will be the third Indigo Palms location nationwide, other locations include Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Calif., and Santana Row, San Jose, Calif.

Jennifer Shubinski covers real estate and development for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-8832 or by e-mail at js@lasvegassun.com.