Retaining wall collapse. -Jerry Lara/Express-News

The Hills at River Mist, San Antonio, TX
2/1/2010
 

Pulte problems: Lessons to be learned from company's history
1/31/2010, KENS Channel 5 (San Antonio, TX)
Ray Koenig has spent three years blogging about problems with Pulte Homes, the owner of the Hills of Rivermist neighborhood. "I feel a very strong obligation to warn people about this dishonest, reckless and arrogant company," he said. 

Ground cave-in: Working to save homes
1/28/2010, MySanAntonio.com
SLIDESHOW. Over a dozen families remain evacuated from their homes. Centex, the Texas-based developer acquired by Pulte Homes last year, did not have a permit to construct the retaining wall. 

Homes evacuated in San Antonio as hill crumbles
1/26/2010, Business Week
Gaping crevices, some 15 feet deep, cut across several yards as dirt cascaded into a towering stone retaining wall that nearly split in half. Fences crumpled like accordions as crews packed dirt under one home and around its exterior after part of its foundation was exposed. One soil expert said the cause of the landslide appeared to be the result of poor retaining wall design, and a city official said the nearly 1,000-foot-long wall in the upper-middle class neighborhood of sprawling two-story homes was built without a permit. 

San Antonio Homes Evacuated as Ground Shifts
1/26/2010, Wall Street Journal
"It's bad, and it has gotten a lot worse," Mr. Dumais said. He was among dozens of homeowners evacuated over the weekend from the neighborhood—a freshly built enclave where home prices range from $170,000 to $250,000. Centex Homes, a unit of Pulte Homes Inc., told about 250 residents who crowded into a hastily called meeting at a local hotel Monday evening that it had yet to determine what caused the mishap, though it said the soil weakness occurred in a relatively isolated area. An executive said the company planned to start "forensic" work Tuesday, a process expected to take a couple of days. 

Buyer beware: Red Flags Tough To Find When Purchasing Home
1/26/2010, KENS Channel 5 (San Antonio, TX)
This weekend’s incident is the only retaining-wall failure in San Antonio, even though hundreds, maybe thousands of retaining walls currently exist, said Michael Moore with the San Antonio Builders Association. The City of San Antonio says Pulte Homes never received a permit for the retaining wall in question. But Moore said having such a permit is mostly an administrative procedure that is not subject to inspections. He explained that city fees are based on the cost of the construction project, and the city does not review the engineers' plans on such outside improvements unless water or sewer lines are involved.