By Steve Ladurantaye | Builder
Everyone wants to figure out where the housing market is and where it’s going in the next year. More than 400 people gathered in Dana Point, California, for Zonda’s Builder 100 conference, looking for some insight on what exactly may be going on. Here are some of the most thought-provoking quotes from Day 1.
“The initial reaction when you see housing starts down is to think it’s bad, but you need to put that in context. There’s been some health returned to the market. People were operating at burnout; suppliers couldn’t keep up. It’s OKto see things come down a little bit.” —Ali Wolf, chief economist, Zonda
“With respect to demographics, we’re seeing a sign of a shift not just for us on the for sale side but also in the early days of build-to-rent. If we go back 24 months, probably 75% of buyers were Caucasian. Today that’s half, and it continues to decline. It’s not a changing demographic—it’s already changed. I think, as builders of for-sale and rent, we are appealing to what this demographic wants—how they live, how we talk to these folks, the community layout. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a shift quite so quickly.” —Sheryl Palmer, chairman and CEO, Taylor Morrison
