Sumitomo Forestry buys Tri Pointe, resetting the arc of homebuilder scale

Sumitomo Forestry buys Tri Pointe, resetting the arc of homebuilder scale
Within a couple of weeks of exactly this time two years ago, the lead-in to a blockbuster $4.9 billion M&A deal involving a Japan-based acquirer of a national public homebuilding enterprise practically wrote itself: “A top-five-ranked U.S. homebuilding company doesn’t happen overnight…. Except when it does.” That same lead applies to 2026’s supercharged kickoff in […]

Taylor Morrison’s 2026 rebalance: romance over discounts

Demand that is awakened — lit by a flame, chasing a well-deserved dream home — is fundamentally different from demand sparked by being a rental refugee, where the walls have closed in and every monthly payment feels like a frittered-away sum that could have done more. Serving both customers today increasingly looks like operating in […]

California’s Acacia Village tests offsite infill’s feasibility advantage

California’s Acacia Village tests offsite infill’s feasibility advantage
A pocket neighborhood is a deceptively simple idea, with a decades-deep real-life pedigree. A small cluster of homes. Close enough to share green space and create a sense of place. Small enough to fit into an infill parcel that has sat empty because the land math never quite worked out. In California in 2026, that […]

Why antitrust talk may be a pressure tactic — not a probe —against homebuilders

A Friday-morning news report suggesting that the Trump administration is exploring an antitrust probe into U.S. homebuilders landed with its intended shock value. The implication? Washington, having rattled its saber, may be preparing to treat large builders as a concentrated market actor whose behavior is contributing to America’s housing affordability crisis. By late Friday afternoon, […]

A spring selling eve – pre-game – note to homebuilding leaders

Homebuilders — many we talk with — are calling today’s selling environment one of “demand uncertainty.” The phrase is clear. Traffic is uneven. Conversions are harder to forecast. Buyers hesitate longer, ask sharper questions, and walk away more often. The label itself may quietly misdirect leadership’s attention toward forces builders cannot control — and away […]

Washington seeks to reset ground-floor retail rules for residential buildings

A fight over ground-floor retail mandates could become one of the most consequential zoning debates of 2026, with Washington state lawmakers moving to curb mandatory storefronts in new residential buildings. A bill in the Washington state Senate would flip the script on commercial zoning, requiring cities with more than 30,000 residents to allow housing by […]