By Brad Hunter | Forbes
When mortgage rates went up from the 3%’s to nearly 5% in the second half of 2018, builders felt a pinch from lower sales. Now that mortgage rates have come back down again, many home shoppers are feeling like they now have a second chance to buy a home and lock in a rate at generational lows.
But builders aren’t taking the market’s improvement for granted. Large homebuilding companies have been gearing up for the past several years to bring homes to market that target first-time home buyers.
“Normally the first-time homebuyer group leads the pack in a housing recovery, and the move-up group fills in later,” said Jeff Mezger, CEO of KB Home. “This time around, it was flipped; the millennials delayed buying for a decade, and the industry was fed by the move-up segment. Now, we’re finally starting to see a normal housing recovery.”
