How are local builders doing?

I know that many Realtors are having a tough time holding on in the current economy and I got to thinking about how builders are doing, especially those smaller, local builders that exist in every corner of America.

Locally we have 5-6 builders who would normally be engaged in small developments 5,10 maybe 15 lots or condos. Right now only 2 or 3 are really building anything and even those projects are at a standstill, while the builders wait for orders (they finished the models and then stopped). We have a few larger stalled out developments in the area and in a couple of cases the companies involved either exited the state or went belly up or both. Many builders sold or auctioned off the lots that they owned and abandoned the developments, often leaving the early buyers in the developments to fend for themselves.

One big builder - Toll Brothers - is still developing and building in this area, albeit at a very slow pace right now. I can't imagine that there is a huge demand for upscale houses right now, but that end of the market seems to be a little more recession-proof than the middle and bottom ends. There is also a fair supply of finished or partially finished new-builds on the market in the area, perhaps enough to last for a year at the current sales pace.

Many of the small builders have reverted to doing mostly remodeling jobs, just to keep their people busy and to generate some cash flow, but even that market is tight right now. I'm sure that a number of people who would have called themselves builders or at least would have claimed to be in the building trades are now working at other jobs, where ever they can find them.

What are the builders in your areas doing? Are you seeing a resurgence in development and building yet? Have builders in your area switched gears to build smaller, more affordable houses? I read that some in Texas have done that already. That would seem to make sense.