Building Market Intelligence

As we tour housing markets across the Midwest, the topic at the forefront of discussion is the price gap between new homes and existing homes. This gap has widened in every major market across the Midwest since the beginning of …

In early November, 10 residential homebuilding executives in the mid-Atlantic area shared their thoughts on the state of their local markets based on sales performance in the third quarter. Albeit a small sample, the responses provide some insight into the …

The pool of qualified new home buyers appears to be running thin in California. The median new home price now: far exceeds the current GSE and FHA loan limits in Orange County, San Jose, the San Francisco East Bay, and …

For years, our thesis has been that the national downturn and recovery (in blue below) will play out similarly to the mid-1980s downturn in Houston (in orange below) and the early-1990s downturn in Southern California (in green below) because both …

“Never let the fear of striking out get in your way” – Babe Ruth October is here: the leaves are changing, jack-o-lanterns are carved, and builders are preparing to hit year-end sales goals. October, of course, is also home to …

It’s no secret that home prices in better-located Southern California markets (closer to the coast, jobs, and good schools) have held up better than prices in inferior locations (those farther inland with longer commutes and not necessarily great schools). But …

Southwest Florida remains a retiree mecca, but rapid job and population growth is increasing family-buyer demand. Affordability is a concern; the median existing home prices in Naples hit $345,000, surpassing 2008 levels, and Fort Myers has had double-digit price appreciation …

Thanks to low mortgage rates, the monthly costs of homeownership in the Washington, DC MSA are among the lowest in the last three decades. If rates rise, as the bond market seems to suggest will happen, and prices and incomes …

California has always been expensive, and it is getting even more expensive as buyers from all over the world flock to the Golden State. Even considering today’s low mortgage rates, the ratio of monthly housing costs (which include mortgage, PMI, …