(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Christopher Todd Communities, Lennar, Taylor Morrison and Toll Brothers.)
By Joe Bousquin | Builder
This is when it gets hard to sell houses again. And that’s good news for home builders in the burgeoning single-family build-to-rent (BTR) space.
After nearly two years of surprisingly brisk demand from buyers that drove home prices and sales higher across the country, a slowdown has finally arrived. Rising mortgage rates, tacked onto home prices that had grown as much as 19% in 2021—the biggest rise in 34 years—chased away foot traffic at spring openings.
“Housing leads the business cycle, and housing is slowing,” said NAHB chairman Jerry Konter in a May release announcing the worst showing for builder confidence since June 2020.
That, of course, was right before millions of Americans, faced with the uncertainty of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, did the unexpected and started buying houses in droves. Instead of hunkering down, hoarding cash, and staying put, home buyers left major metropolitan areas and sought single-family homes in the suburbs, where they could find enough space to work remotely while avoiding elevator rides and awkward hallway greetings with their neighbors.
