Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

CEO of this $4 billion homebuilder says Sun Belt new home prices are down more than headlines suggest

fastcompany.com · 15d · first reportShare

Want more housing market stories from Lance Lambert’s ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter . Doug Bauer, CEO of Tri Pointe Homes —America’s 19th largest homebuilder—thinks the phrase “affordability” gets overused. “It’s a catchy term,” Bauer tells ResiClub . “You pull it up in ChatGPT or Webster’s dictionary, it’s what one person could afford to pay for that good or service, and everybody’s a little different.” Tri Pointe skews toward move-up buyers, he says, and his argument is that net effective new-build pricing in core homebuilding markets has already come down meaningfully from its 2022 frenzy highs—which means the real obstacle holding back demand right now isn’t affordability at all, he says. Instead, the issue now is confidence, he argues. “They [buyers] have a confidence problem,” Bauer said. That confidence problem, more than pricing, is what he says has kept new-home demand subdued this year—and it was worsened by spring spike in oil prices. “We saw t