Zillow is the unquestioned king of the existing home space, but it is not just about matching buyers with a resale. Zillow is big in the new home world as well. The company is partnering with homebuilders to empower them to reach potential buyers better, joining the melee for a buyer segment that often doesn’t realize they have other options. Qadra Evans is the Director of Industry Relations and Sales for New Construction at Zillow. Qadra helms Zillow’s efforts to help homebuilders use Zillow to expand their reach and put them on the radar of homebuyers who are not always reachable. Plus, we have some bold predictions for the 2025 housing market! Let’s review some highlights from my chat with Qadra on the latest episode of the New Home Insights podcast.

In April, the New Home Insights podcast looked at how the spring selling season was shaping up with some of our resident market experts, and you loved it. It was one of our most listened-to episodes. So, in this episode, we are joined by the JBREC survey team—Jody Kahn, Cara Lavender, and Dillan Krieg—to review 2024 and look forward to how the housing market is shaping up. They dig into a wide range of results from our monthly surveys of new homebuilders nationwide and distill that into an array of trends and insights.

With an election days away, politics is top of mind for almost everyone. So, now seemed like a good time for the podcast to delve into the politics and policies that impact housing. David Howard is the CEO of the National Rental Home Council (NRHC), which advocates mainly for the single-family rental (SFR) sector. David walks us through the ins and outs of national, state, and local housing policies. We had a wide-ranging conversation primarily focused on the rental market, but we also touched on the for-sale world.

John Burns, Founder and CEO of John Burns Research and Consulting, shares his expertise on housing market trends and future predictions. He reflects on long-term cycles and significant events affecting real estate, discussing the impact of rising mortgage rates on affordability. The conversation dives into the evolution of the single-family rental market and the demographic shifts between millennials and baby boomers, emphasizing the pressing housing challenges. They also explore innovative solutions like manufactured housing and the growing demand for density and urban amenities in suburban areas.

Don Mullen, the founder and CEO of Pretium, a major real estate investment firm, dives into the transformative world of single-family rentals (SFR). He shares insights on how data-driven strategies are reshaping investment decisions, enabling direct investments in fragmented assets. The discussion covers innovative financing solutions for home builders, especially during downturns, and highlights the critical role of rental communities in tackling America’s housing challenges. Mullen’s expertise sheds light on the evolving housing landscape and the importance of technological advancements.

Big builders seem to be getting bigger every year. Growth might have some drawbacks, but for the most part, it makes a builder strong. Think operational efficiency, expanding your pipeline, access to capital, depth of skills, and expertise. You can grow organically, but you can grow faster through a smart merger or acquisition. That’s where Rich Moriarty comes in. Rich has been in investment banking for 35 years, much of that at financial behemoth Citibank. He co-founded Vestra Advisors last year and hasn’t skipped a beat, quickly becoming a key player in the homebuilder public finance and mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A) space. Join us for the latest episode of the New Home Insights podcast, where Rich walks us through the nuts and bolts of M&A, the strategy, the market conditions, the outlook, and more.

What will your kitchen and bathroom look like a year from now, two years from now, five years from now? That’s what Bill Darcy, Global President and CEO of the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), thinks about every day. This perspective provides Bill with a look under the hood of this sector, and he shares what he sees on this episode of The New Home Insights podcast. Please note that we recorded this podcast prior to the recently released 2Q24 KBMI report, in which K&B industry pros were slightly less bullish on 2024 growth. In the second quarter, the KBMI Index shifted down to 54 as firms lowered their expectations for near-term revenue growth.

One of the hardest things for a successful company is to stop doing what made it successful and start doing something that will stretch its success into the future. It is a risk and a cost, but it can be an investment if done right. So when Fortune Brands Innovations shed an iconic cabinetry brand, CEO Nick Fink had some anxious moments. But that decision and the ensuing journey have allowed Fortune Brands to expand their product offerings, providing a more diversified imprint on our homes. They made a strategic decision to focus on what they did best and play in the parts of the home market that they believed had the best prospects. In this episode of The New Home Insights podcast, Nick joined me to talk about that evolution and his journey and share insights about Fortune Brands’ strategies, goals, values, and core commitment to technology and data.

To grow or not to grow is often the question for a homebuilder. For Doug Bauer, CEO and co-founder of Tri Pointe Homes, the answer has always been “grow.” In 2009, when Doug Bauer and his partners started Tri Pointe, growth was a huge risk. But they pulled it off, and now Tri Pointe Homes is one of the top public homebuilders in the nation with a footprint across the country. On this episode of the New Home Insights podcast, Doug Bauer shares some highlights of Tri Pointe’s growth over the years.

If you have anything to do with the housing market in Texas, you have heard of Hillwood Communities. If you are from elsewhere in the country and have not heard of Hillwood, here’s your chance. All across the great state of Texas, Hillwood is building some of the best-designed and most successful master-planned communities in the US. They have achieved this with expert placemaking, which Hillwood defines this way: "We create places where relationships with neighbors evolve into friendships and those friendships begin to feel like family."   On this episode of the New Home Insights podcast, our guest is Fred Balda, the president of Hillwood Communities. Fred has guided Hillwood Communities for over three decades and he shares his approach, outlook, and take on all things master plan. He and Hillwood have a track record that says you should listen.