New Home Insights Podcast
by John Burns Research and Consulting
Issues, interviews, and insights into the U.S. housing market. Monthly takes on what’s happening in the housing market today, and what might be happening tomorrow. From the John Burns Research and Consulting (JBREC) team.The podcast is hosted by Dean Wehrli, Principal at JBREC. Dean manages residential and commercial real estate consulting assignments across the country and has deep knowledge of California’s Bay Area, Sacramento, and Central Valley markets as well as Northern Nevada. John Burns Research and Consulting is an independent research provider and consulting firm focused on the housing industry. The company’s research subscribers receive the most accurate analysis possible to inform their macro investment decisions, and the company’s consulting clients receive specific property and portfolio investment advice designed to maximize profits. The team takes great pride in enabling the profitable development of the best places to live in the world.
Episodes
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Wellen Park: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once | Sunshine State Edition
The New Home Insights Podcast On the Road: Sunshine State Edition continues at Wellen Park. Dean Wehrli sits down with Rick Severance, Division President at Wellen Park, to unpack how a new brand, a wider range of homes, and amenities built from day one turned the former West Villages into one of...
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Babcock Ranch: Built to Weather the Storm | Sunshine State Edition
The New Home Insights Podcast On the Road: Sunshine State Edition heads to Babcock Ranch, the latest stop on our tour of Florida’s best master plans, with more episodes to come. Dean Wehrli sits down with Tom Hoban, President and Chief Investment Officer of Kitson & Partners, to trace how a...
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Lakewood Ranch: Long-Game Master Plan Strategy | Sunshine State Edition
The New Home Insights Podcast On the Road: Sunshine State Edition continues at Lakewood Ranch, the second stop on our tour of Florida’s best master plans. Dean Wehrli sits down with Rex Jensen, President and CEO of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, and Laura Cole, Senior Vice President of Lakewood Ranch…
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Lake Nona: A City Within a City | Sunshine State Edition
The New Home Insights Podcast hits the road for the Sunshine State Edition, kicking off our tour of Florida’s best master plans at Lake Nona, with many more episodes to come. Dean Wehrli sits down with Rob Adams, Senior Vice President of Residential Development, and Frank Paris, Senior Vice...
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Models, Merchandising, and the Mind of the Homebuyer
For a new homebuilder, your model is your calling card. It is how you portray your product to the world—at least the world that matters to you: the folks visiting your community, your sales center, your clubhouse. The same goes for apartment developers. How you present has an impact. Impressions,...
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The Great Demographic Reset: What Housing Demand Looks Like Now
Demographics usually move slowly. Over the past two years, they turned on a dime. Eric Finnigan, VP of Demographics Research at John Burns Research and Consulting, joins Dean Wehrli to unpack the demographic forces resetting housing demand. They cover the sharp reversal in immigration and its...
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Discipline, Demand, and Affordability: Inside LGI Homes with Eric Lipar
The housing sector always seems to be in “crisis” mode when it comes to pricing. But now more than ever, there is no denying that affordability is the biggest hurdle to homeownership. Getting a key to a new home into the hands of a first-time buyer is everything to LGI Homes. It is a singular…
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How Wellness Concepts Are Shaping Our Communities
Wellness can mean different things to different people in different contexts. Is it a spa treatment with facial scrubs and sliced cucumbers? Is it someone in a rented lab coat on YouTube rapturing about cold plunges and cupping and the latest superfood? Is it rise-and-grind hustlers, holistic...
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Homebuilder M&A in 2026: Geography, Scale, and the Long Game
Homebuilder mergers and acquisitions (M&A) seem to slide into the zeitgeist now and then, catching our attention and making us wonder what happens next. M&A is having a moment now. From the rush of big Japanese operators into America to American builders partnering with their brethren to make…
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Has Housing’s Spring Forward Stalled this Year?
Has Housing’s Spring Forward Stalled this Year? by John Burns Research and Consulting
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Separating Fact from Fear: Institutional Investors, SFR, and the Housing Debate
A note: this conversation was recorded on March 17, 2025, so any references to pending legislation reflect the state of the debate at that time. The debate over institutional ownership of single-family rental (SFR) homes has moved from industry trade publications to the floor of the U.S.…
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Built to Last: How a Japanese Home Builder is Challenging American Construction
Japanese firms have gone big on American housing. Sekisui House has been at the front of this line. The 65-year-old innovative Japanese builder has built a book of homebuilding brands that covers the country. Their most recent acquisition, Richmond American Homes, not only gave Sekisui a national...
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The Year of Realignment: How Builders Should Adapt to Today's Buyer
The housing market pendulum has swung back toward buyers, and understanding what consumers truly want—and will pay for—has never been more critical for builders. In this episode of the New Home Insights Podcast, JBREC's Dean Wehrli sits down with Jenni Nichols, Vice President of Design, to…
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Smith Douglas Homes and Building Affordably by Design
It seems that affordability has suddenly become the word of the day in politics, but it has been at the top of the agenda in housing for a very long time. There will always be market space at the high end—but there will also always be a need to solve for new home prices that fit into the fat part...
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The Avilla Advantage: NexMetro’s Josh Hartmann on Brand, Data, and BTR Strategy
Back in the olden days (after those bikes with the one really big wheel and the one tiny wheel, but before TikTok), when we spoke about the rental market, we meant apartments. Sure, there were plenty of “mom and pop” rental homes, but no one thought about them, and no one was building new ones.…
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How David Weekley Homes Balances Private-Company Culture with Public-Company Scale
In the new home world, we often divide builders into public and private. The idea is that the publics are the capital-rich, large-scale firms with a multi-regional presence that are gradually gobbling up market share from the smaller local private builders scattered throughout the country. But…
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The New Land Financing Playbook: Flexible Capital Meets Cautious Builders
If there are two things that fuel real estate development, they are land and money. Oh, and design. Three things that—wait, the type of housing is huge, too, so product is another fundamental. So there are four—okay, there are a whole bunch of critical elements to the successful development of…
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The Rental Rebound: Supply, Demand, and Demographic Shifts Driving Recovery
There is no housing market; there are housing markets. We all know that, but all too often forget. Now, as mortgage rates and increasing supply challenge the for-sale sector, rental supply has tapered from its peak, and that sector is firming. Moreover, dynamics vary, often markedly, depending on...
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The Trader Joe's of Homebuilding
If you’re going to be the “Something of Something,” it is not bad to be the Trader Joe’s of homebuilding. You are big but not too big. You’re known for high quality and attentive service, but instead of ringing a bell for someone who just bought a bottle of that delicious almond sparkling wine…
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Resiliency Under Pressure: Can Housing Weather Choppy Economic Seas?
Tariffs, inflation, interest rates, jobs. All are factors that massively impact the housing market. As head of economic research and forecasting at Renaissance Macro Research, Neil Dutta tracks currents and trends across the globe. On Bloomberg TV or in Business Insider, Neil always tells it like...
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From Wall Street to Main Street: How Avenue One Connects Local Pros with Institutional Capital
Every great story has an “inciting incident,” something that propels the protagonist into action. For Ryan Stroker, Founder and CEO of Avenue One, that moment came when he realized there was a gaping disconnect between institutional capital and a vast array of comparatively smaller homebuilders...
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Porches, Parks, and Placemaking: How DMB Turns Dirt Into Destinations
Placemaking is the art hiding within the banalities of residential development. It is the color on canvas that transforms square footage and dwelling units per acre into homes, and homes into communities. DMB Development has been making great places since 1984, and the company’s President and…
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Why This Spring Selling Season Isn’t Feeling Quite Like Spring Yet
Spring is a critical time of year for the housing market. The weather warms, foot traffic surges, and builders can bank sales. It is historically the height of the market, particularly in cooler climes. At JBREC, we constantly interact with new homebuilders, resale brokers, land brokers, building...
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From Gas Stations to Gross Margins: Ryan Marshall Runs PulteGroup Like a Well-Oiled Team
PulteGroup CEO Ryan Marshall brings clarity, candor, and—since it is in the name of the show—insight into the latest episode of the New Home Insights podcast. You can tell he is not eager to talk about himself, but Ryan has a great story to tell. He shares his humble upbringing and early life...
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Sean Dobson on Rethinking Homeownership, SFR, and Housing Investment
The best ideas are the ones that seem obvious—“Why didn’t I think of that?” Sean Dobson saw the pile-up coming before the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) crashed the housing market. Sean and his company, Amherst, built a model to assess the true value of every home in America and bet right on what...
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Building Trust: How Taylor Morrison Became America’s Most Trusted Homebuilder
Most of us, even the CEO of a major homebuilder, don’t have a master plan for our lives. Sometimes, fate takes us to a place we never thought we would be. Sheryl Palmer’s journey started as a young advertising expert at McDonald’s, wound through homebuilder Del Webb, and eventually put her at...
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Connecting Builders and Buyers: How Zillow is Redefining New Home Sales
Zillow is the unquestioned king of the existing home space, but it is not just about matching buyers with a resale. Zillow is big in the new home world as well. The company is partnering with homebuilders to empower them to reach potential buyers better, joining the melee for a buyer segment that...
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The 2024 Housing Market Unpacked: Challenges, Strategies, and Optimism for 2025
In April, the New Home Insights podcast looked at how the spring selling season was shaping up with some of our resident market experts, and you loved it. It was one of our most listened-to episodes. So, in this episode, we are joined by the JBREC survey team—Jody Kahn, Cara Lavender, and Dillan...
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Housing at the Heart of Politics: A Deep Dive into Policies Shaping the Rental Market
With an election days away, politics is top of mind for almost everyone. So, now seemed like a good time for the podcast to delve into the politics and policies that impact housing. David Howard is the CEO of the National Rental Home Council (NRHC), which advocates mainly for the single-family...
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Episode 100: John Burns Reflects on Housing Cycles, Market Trends, and the Future of Real Estate
To celebrate the 100th episode of the New Home Insights podcast, John Burns, founder and CEO of John Burns Research and Consulting, joins us. But it is not just John and me sipping a delicious IPA and commiserating. There is that, but this episode takes a 30,000-foot view of the long cycles of…
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Episode 99: Data-Driven Investment Strategies: Don Mullen on SFR, Tech, and Housing’s Future
Diverse, tech-savvy, innovative—all fair when describing Pretium, one of the biggest real estate investment firms you may have heard of. Pretium has helped change how we invest in real estate. Pretium is impacting single-family rental (SFR), build-to-rent (BTR), fix and flip, mortgage…
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Episode 98: Inside the Deal: M&A Insights with Rich Moriarty of Vestra Advisors
Big builders seem to be getting bigger every year. Growth might have some drawbacks, but for the most part, it makes a builder strong. Think operational efficiency, expanding your pipeline, access to capital, depth of skills, and expertise. You can grow organically, but you can grow faster…
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Episode 97: Market Trends in Kitchen and Bath: A Deep Dive with NKBA’s Bill Darcy
What will your kitchen and bathroom look like a year from now, two years from now, five years from now? That’s what Bill Darcy, Global President and CEO of the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA), thinks about every day. This perspective provides Bill with a look under the hood of this...
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Episode 96: Leading Through Innovation: How Fortune Brands is Shaping the Future of Home
One of the hardest things for a successful company is to stop doing what made it successful and start doing something that will stretch its success into the future. It is a risk and a cost, but it can be an investment if done right. So when Fortune Brands Innovations shed an iconic cabinetry…
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Episode 95: Building Success: Doug Bauer and the Growth of Tri Pointe Homes
To grow or not to grow is often the question for a homebuilder. For Doug Bauer, CEO and co-founder of Tri Pointe Homes, the answer has always been “grow.” In 2009, when Doug Bauer and his partners started Tri Pointe, growth was a huge risk. But they pulled it off, and now Tri Pointe Homes is one…
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Episode 94: Hillwood Communities and the Art and Science of Placemaking
If you have anything to do with the housing market in Texas, you have heard of Hillwood Communities. If you are from elsewhere in the country and have not heard of Hillwood, here’s your chance. All across the great state of Texas, Hillwood is building some of the best-designed and most successful...
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Episode 93: Shifting Foundations: A Deep Dive into Demographics and Housing
Demographics impact housing in a few massive foundational ways and a thousand small ways. Price, product, place—demographics help define them. On this episode of the New Home Insights Podcast, our guests are Chris Porter and Eric Finnigan, two leaders at John Burns Research and Consulting who…
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Episode 92: Building Up: Walton Global's Strategic Land Insights
This episode of the New Home Insights Podcast delves into the intricacies of land banking, a crucial component of the real estate industry, with insights from Kate Kaminski, the COO of Walton Global. Kate shares her journey from the home building industry to her pivotal role at Walton, a company...
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Episode 91: It’s the Spring Selling Season, So Why Are You Reading this Instead of Selling a Home?
Every year, the housing sector eagerly awaits the spring selling season. With the holidays in the rearview and the weather warming, it’s time to buy. If you are a purist about seasonal starting dates, it is not technically spring yet, but don’t be that way. Jody Kahn and Dillan Krieg are…
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Episode 90: Empire Communities' Marketing Insights: The Art of Selling Lifestyle
“Lifestyle” is one of the hottest concepts in new home sales and marketing. At its core, it means designing homes that not only have a specific buyer in mind but a buyer who knows exactly what they want and where they want it. It relates to both community and home. Lifestyle is about offering the...
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Episode 89: Harnessing Brand Power: Taylor Morrison's Marketing Dexterity
The concept of “brand” can be a bit vague. At its core, it is a service or product that some part of the public can identify as uniquely yours. It is what you do, what you provide. It sets you apart, and people want it. Think Apple and iPhones; think Lululemon and translucent leggings. Or think...
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Episode 88: Swimming with Giants: Olson Homes' Strategic Approach in a Sea of Big Builders
Scott Laurie and Olson Homes know that you have to be smart when you are one of the smaller fish swimming in the sea of big fish. You have to be nimble. You have to play the long game. You have to be omnivorous. You have to seek opportunity where others may not see it. Olson Homes is a Southern...
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Episode 87: What's Next for Building Products and Home Remodeling?
The pandemic taught many lessons. In housing, one was that disruptions in the things we build homes with can, unsurprisingly, bring the industry to its knees. As 2023 draws to a close, we ask: Are we finally past all of that—the rising prices, broken supply chains, and interminable waits for...
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Episode 86: Value Adding—How Resale Will Survive a Changing Market
The real estate broker is the conduit between most people and the biggest purchase of their life—a home. Mark McLaughlin led Pacific Union International, one of the best upmarket brokerages in California, and now is the Chief Real Estate Strategist for Compass, one of the best and biggest...
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Episode 85: The Economy Deconstructed, One TikTok Video at a Time
Do not call Kyla Scanlon a social media influencer. She is a social media educator. Through a swelling number of followers on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, Kyla has built a reputation as someone who can accessibly explain complex economic and financial concepts to a primarily Gen Z audience...
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Episode 84: Evolving Age-Qualified Spaces: A Glimpse into Modern 55+ Communities
Call us obsessed with the 55+ housing space, but we do follow the demographics. The 55+ space enjoys a population bulge that has at least another decade run to it. This has enticed many folks to dip a toe in the water, but fewer have taken the full-body plunge. Though it is fueled by the...
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Episode 83: How Meritage Homes Drew Up a New Blueprint for Success
When Meritage Homes CEO Phillippe Lord took over the helm of one of the biggest home builders in America, he was almost immediately faced with an existential crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic was unlike anything in living memory. After ensuring everyone in the Meritage family was safe and stayed that...
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Episode 82: How Long Will Home Builder Euphoria Last?
With those low mortgage rate golden handcuffs keeping a huge chunk of the existing home market in cryogenic stasis, the new home sector has thrived. There is even a case to be made for continued good times even if resale listings begin to rise and mortgage rates remain elevated. There are…
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Episode 81: Flipping the Script: A Deep Dive into Tech-Driven Real Estate Investment
Stephanie Casper, the Chief Revenue Officer of Kiavi, joins our podcast to discuss how Kiavi is leveraging proprietary technology, in-house data models, machine learning models, and AI to make the process of borrowing money for the purposes of investing in residential real estate easier for their...
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Episode 80: Getting to 'Yes' on Housing through 'YIMBYism.'
Planning officials fear them. Housing developers and builders loathe them. Ever present and hard to appease, they are the NIMBY—the “not in my backyard” anti-housing advocate. The stereotype of an angry, finger-wagging busybody always saying "no" to new housing may be an unfair stereotype, but...
About this show
Issues, interviews, and insights into the U.S. housing market. Monthly takes on what’s happening in the housing market today, and what might be happening tomorrow. From the John Burns Research and Consulting (JBREC) team.The podcast is hosted by Dean Wehrli, Principal at JBREC. Dean manages residential and commercial real estate consulting assignments across the country and has deep knowledge of California’s Bay Area, Sacramento, and Central Valley markets as well as Northern Nevada. John Burns Research and Consulting is an independent research provider and consulting firm focused on the housing industry. The company’s research subscribers receive the most accurate analysis possible to inform their macro investment decisions, and the company’s consulting clients receive specific property and portfolio investment advice designed to maximize profits. The team takes great pride in enabling the profitable development of the best places to live in the world.
Hosted by
John Burns Research and Consulting
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