If you constructed a word cloud for homebuilding today, the biggest words would likely be mortgage rates, tariffs, land, consumer confidence, and land banking. You can’t attend an industry conference without encountering multiple new land bank funds. Yet many builders remain unclear about how this business operates and its implications. This may be old news […]
As hours ticked away toward Tuesday’s expiration of the current legislative session, Texas lawmakers passed a bill somewhat trimmed in its ambitions to reduce lot-size minimums to 3,000 square feet in cities with a population of at least 150,000 and counties with a population of at least 300,000. The measure, Senate Bill 15, would allow […]
Too many homebuilding leaders still cling to the belief that the future of homebuilding is somewhere out there, around the next corner or maybe the next. That it will arrive after one more cycle. That it’s something you can pilot next year or table until interest rates come down. But here’s a thought, call it […]
Margins Under Pressure: Builders Face a Reckoning Spring is supposed to be homebuilding’s moment. But 2025’s selling season has been jammed in neutral. Consumer sticker shock, stubborn mortgage rates, and insurance and property tax drag have forced builders into a full-blown incentive war. Everything’s on the table for mortgage buydowns, free upgrades, design credits, and […]
In a spring 2025 season marked by softening traffic, heightened affordability headwinds, and corporate belt-tightening, homebuilders are looking for new ways to de-risk their land books without losing momentum on development. Many have responded by delaying lot takedowns, walking away from land positions, or slashing budgets to protect margins. But what if the problem isn’t […]
When Texans have the mentality “everything is bigger in Texas,” going big on smaller can be a Lone Star State-sized challenge, especially when it comes to housing. Despite an 11th-hour hold-up, the Texas House passed a bill Tuesday evening that overrides zoning in the state’s largest cities. This will allow for the reduction of lot […]
Danny Signorelli doesn’t back off a problem. He hunts them. We look for opportunity where there’s challenge,” Signorelli says. “Sometimes, those surface-level problems turn a lot of folks away. But if you power through them, there’s success hiding in plain sight.” That philosophy is the backbone of Image source: AustinPoint.com The project will ultimately support […]
As Spring Selling Season 2025 sputters, homebuilders face a familiar but more punishing challenge: how to make the math work. Mortgage rates remain stubbornly high. Prices, incentives, and sales velocity are not cooperating. Material and labor costs, meanwhile, continue to run hot. What’s left? Efficiency. While sales may rank among homebuilders right now as Priorities […]
[Architect and urban planner Dan Parolek coined the phrase “missing middle housing” more than a decade ago, and it is now a part of most conversations about how to solve housing shortages and improve affordability. This article introduces a new series by contributing writer Richard Lawson that will get beyond the hype surrounding missing middle […]
In today’s accelerating homebuilding M&A cycle, a familiar inflection point is emerging — an operationally solid, regionally dominant builder, pressured by capital constraints and macro volatility, seeks a suitor with deeper pockets and staying power. United Homes Group (UHG), a public homebuilder with roots in South Carolina and reach across the Carolinas and Georgia, now […]
Grounded Solutions Network, a nonprofit known for its work in lasting housing affordability, is one of three 2025 Ivory Prize winners. Its Homes for the Future program — recognized in Ivory Innovations’ Finance category — offers a new approach to an old challenge: making homeownership affordable without relying on scarce public subsidies. We created Ivory […]
Spring 2025 has not delivered the seasonal bounce builders count on. Buyers are hesitant. Even well-qualified, cash-rich, lifestyle-motivated prospects are pausing. Yet, for those in the 55+ new home sector, a massive opportunity remains hidden in plain sight. The challenge? Breaking through the triad of resistance: high costs and rates, economic jitters, and policy disruptions […]
