Tony Trella (March 7,2015)

Tony Trella was our second guest speaker on March 7, 2015. Mr.Trella has worked in Residential and commercial development for over 20 years in the industry. At one point in his career he ran one of the biggest land development firms in the world with over 1000 workers under his supervision. As mention previously, Tony Trella was running developments companies in the first part of his career until he took a hiatus for a couple of years.  After coming back to the industry he became a consultant for a commercial land development firm.

Mr. Trella started his presentation with the history of Residential Housing in America and the change of the industry over the years. He explains that it is crucial to know the history of the market in order to successfully operate in today market. The timeframe of his presentation was during World War 2 which was from 1935 to 1946. Tony discusses how the residential industry was forever changed due to war and how 13.6 million came back from war needed homes. The government was now faced with a housing crisis due to the lack homes for the returning soldiers. During this time frame the American population would soon increase drastically due to the baby boomers which will nearly double America population over the course of the next decade. He then explains how the housing crisis was solved with two key factor one was creation of the Interstate highway and two the development of suburbia by William Levitt. 

After briefly explaining America Residential History, he then explained how the market has again change greatly due to a strong increase in demographics.  The reason he brought up the demographic impact is because it has the same pattern as the housing crisis in the 1950’s. Today more people are moving to the United States in hope of a better life but with the population constantly rising the demand for land and houses are high; which brings back Mr.Trella theory that without knowing the past you cannot successfully developed due to the fact your bound to make the same mistakes.