Why giant homebuilders are sticking with Sun Belt growth markets despite housing market weakness |
Why giant homebuilders are sticking with Sun Belt growth markets despite housing market weakness
Beazer Homes CEO Allan Merrill: If homebuilders chase the markets that look tightest today, those conditions may have already shifted by the time homes deliver 2 to 4 years later.
[Map: Lance Lambert, created with Datawrapper; image: Adobe Stock]
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While many growth markets in Texas and Florida have seen some of the biggest power shifts toward homebuyers since the Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out, Beazer Homes CEO Allan Merrill acknowledged at ResiDay 2025 last November that Beazer Homes—America’s 23rd-largest homebuilder—doesn’t plan to chase the relatively tighter housing markets in the Northeast and Midwest.
Instead, he said the builder plans to stay focused on growth markets in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida, which—despite experiencing a greater post–Pandemic Housing Boom cyclical cooling—he expects will be long-term new-home demand winners driven by population growth.
Merrill pointed out that if homebuilders make investment decisions purely based on which housing markets are performing best in the short-term, then by the time those investments are........