The Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) promotes the application of technology to improve the affordability and value of new and existing homes. The PATH program partners recognize the importance of setting priorities for research and technology development that will enable the home building industry to work towards the PATH mission. This priority-setting is known as "roadmapping."

As part of the Technology Roadmap Series, this report examines how information technology can greatly improve the speed and efficiency of the entire home building process. The report explores how computers, software, and communications (especially wireless technology and the Internet) can improve speed, efficiency, and quality in home building.

Specifically, the report looks at:

• Integrating software packages to speed up the entire process from design through materials' lists to completion of the home.
• Applying an approach called Enterprise Resource Planning - already used in many manufacturing environments - to home building.
• Improving the quality and quantity of home building information provided by the World Wide Web.
• Speeding up the permitting/inspection/approval process.

To learn more about PATH, visit the PATH Web Site. More information on the Technology Roadmap Series is also available on the PATH Roadmapping Web Site.