When Meritage Homes CEO Phillippe Lord took over the helm of one of the biggest home builders in America, he was almost immediately faced with an existential crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic was unlike anything in living memory. After ensuring everyone in the Meritage family was safe and stayed that way, Phillippe realized they would have to change to navigate this new world. Not only would they need to change due to the current crisis, but they would need to embrace permanent change and ingrained flexibility as the surest way to manage long-term success. Phillippe joins New Home Insights podcast host Dean Wehrli on the latest episode.

With those low mortgage rate golden handcuffs keeping a huge chunk of the existing home market in cryogenic stasis, the new home sector has thrived. There is even a case to be made for continued good times even if resale listings begin to rise and mortgage rates remain elevated. There are certainly hurdles ahead, but our Director of Research and Managing Principal, Rick Palacios Jr., makes the case for continued new home resilience on the latest episode of the New Home Insights podcast.

Stephanie Casper, the Chief Revenue Officer of Kiavi, joins our podcast to discuss how Kiavi is leveraging proprietary technology, in-house data models, machine learning models, and AI to make the process of borrowing money for the purposes of investing in residential real estate easier for their customers. Join us as Dean and Stephanie unpack the current dynamics of the 'fix and flip' market and the single-family rental sector. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and real estate investment.

Planning officials fear them. Housing developers and builders loathe them. Ever present and hard to appease, they are the NIMBY—the “not in my backyard” anti-housing advocate. The stereotype of an angry, finger-wagging busybody always saying "no" to new housing may be an unfair stereotype, but their impact is real. Increasingly, though, there is an alternative seeking to move the needle in the opposite direction. Counter to the NIMBY crowd is the “yes in my backyard” crowd, better known as the YIMBYs. On this episode of the New Home Insights podcast, we meet one. Laura Foote is the Executive Director of YIMBY Action. With her help, we explore this movement and its strategies, failures, and successes.

Could your home survive a spin on the surface of the sun? No? A NileBuilt home could (probably). That’s over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s ghost pepper hot. That’s middle of a microwaved Hot Pocket hot. NileBuilt is a materials company taking a step into the production home world. The critical difference is NileBuilt uses a concrete material with a hyper-insulating core to build its homes. This makes their homes fire resistant, efficient, quiet, and cool. We thought that sounded interesting, so we talked with Scott Long, the cofounder and CEO of NileBuilt, on this episode of the New Home Insights podcast.

When homeowners are surveyed about which rooms are most critical to get right, the kitchen and the primary bath typically top the list. But that doesn’t make it easy. There is an ongoing battle between functionality and aesthetics, and the struggle to stay on top of trends is constant. Brian Juedes, National Vice President of Product Design at Taylor Morrison, fights this battle every day. If there are trade-offs to be made that impact the desirability of your home, you had better make the right ones. Brian has done the hard work so now, after listening to this New Home Insights podcast episode, you won’t have to.

Sean Roberts, CEO of Villa, joins our podcast to discuss what he's seeing in the ADU market and how his company is providing solutions for the current housing market shortage and affordability issue.

iBuying exploded onto the housing scene a few years ago with the potential to change how we buy and sell our homes. After Zillow and Redfin exited the sector, Opendoor now controls the lion’s share of the iBuyer market. As higher mortgage rates and the threat of economic slowdown have slowed housing in general, where do Opendoor and iBuying go from here? How will Opendoor adapt to changing market forces? Will they try new tactics and develop new strategies? What will they do more of or less of? And how will Opendoor interact with other major market players, such as new home builders? On this episode of New Home Insights, Dean Wehrli talks with Alex Toth and Derek Schairer, who manage Opendoor’s home builder program, about how Opendoor plans not only to survive but thrive as they evolve. Note: This episode was recorded on February 16, 2023

Chris Porter, JBREC's own Chief Demographer and co-author of "Big Shifts Ahead", joins the podcast to discuss how long-term demographic trends are ultimately going to shape the demand for housing. Chris shares some insights and findings from our latest white paper, which is a deep-dive on how much the US housing market is undersupplied and what would be a reasonable amount of construction to bring the US into balance.

The New Home Insights podcast is always trying to define the future of housing. Market trends, design trends, economic trends. But what about how we actually build our homes? What once seemed like something for the far-off future is here now—3D-printed homes. Century Communities is a trailblazer in the emerging world of 3D-printed homes. Genji Nakata, Executive Vice President of National Operations at Century Communities, helped us explore this world in the latest episode of New Home Insights.