 |
|
|
|||||
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. For much of the past three years, Lennar, Americas second-largest homebuilder, has pursued an aggressive strategy: prioritize sales pace and market share, even if it meant slicing deeper into margins through price cuts and heavy incentives in the currently housing affordability strained market. That approach helped the company keep homes moving in softer Sun Belt markets like Florida, Texas, and Arizona. But now, after reporting its weakest gross margin since 2009, Lennar is signaling its ready to shift gears. On Fridays earnings call, co-CEO Stuart Miller told analysts that Lennar will pull back just a little bit on its sales-over-margin strategy after seeing profitability erode further in the third quarter. For Lennar, this is an opportune time to pause and let the market catch up a little bit, Miller said. Even though mortgage rates began to trend downward towards the end of the quarter, stronger sales have not yet followed. We have certainly begun to see early signs of greater customer interest . . . [but] this is just the right time for us to pull back just a little bit. The numbers show why. Lennars average selling price, net of incentives, fell to $383,000 in Q3 2025down 9.2% from the same quarter last year, and 22% below the 2022 peak of $491,000. Some of that 22% decline reflects outright price cuts or the construction of smaller homes, but much of it stems from a surge in incentive spending, particularly mortgage rate buydowns. In fact, Lennars incentives averaged 14.3% of the final sales price last quarter, the highest level since 2009, according to John Burns Research & Consulting. On a $450,000 home, that works out to more than $64,000 in concessions. Sales volume was difficult to maintain and required additional incentives in order to achieve our expected pace and to avoid building excess inventory, Miller acknowledged. The incentive-fueled push succeeded in keeping sales moving, but it came at a steep cost. Lennars gross margin slipped to 17.5% in the third quarter, also the lowest since 2009. That appears to be the line the builder doesnt want to cross. Accordingly, we’re going to begin to ease back our delivery expectations for the fourth quarter and full-year in order to relieve the pressure on sales and deliveries and help establish a floor on margin, Miller said. Florida has been one of the toughest markets. Elevated levels of unsold new and existing homesparticularly in Southwest Floridaforced Lennar into deeper discounting. On a year-over-year basis, its Eastern division, which is primarily Florida, posted the sharpest drop in average sales prices at 8.5%. Still, Miller struck a cautiously optimistic tone: Inventories have been moderating, and that has started to build a more stable environment. Looking ahead, Lennar says mortgage rates hold the key to stabilizing weaker Sun Belt markets. If the 30-year fixed can settle below 6%, the builder believes affordability will improve enough to spark stronger demand. We are optimistic that if mortgage rates approach the 6.0% level or even lower, we will soon see some firming in the market, Miller said. For now, Lennar is tempering its aggressive market-share push and refocusing on profitability. The way that I would think about what we’re doing is we’re running a marathon and partway through, we’re just taking a moment to take a breath, Miller said. That pause may not last long. With its leaner cost structure and expanded investor marketplace platform, Lennar is positioning itself to pounce once demand firms, Miller told analysts on Friday. But in the meantime, the weakness across the Sun Belt has been made clear: Home prices net of incentives, once soaring, are now down more than 20% from their peak for one of Americas biggest homebuilders.
Category:
E-Commerce
Get your popcorn (and maybe a plate of salmon sashimi) ready: Fat Bear Week, the annual competition to crown the rotundest brown bear at Alaskas Katmai National Park, is back for its 2025 season. Since 2014, Katmai National Park has hosted a March madnessstyle competition inviting the public to vote on their favorite bear from 12 of the parks most robust residents. This year, the Fat Bear Week tournament and voting will take place September 2330, and the champion will be crowned on September 30. The competitions junior division just concluded, and its winner, 128 Jr, will join 11 other contenders in the main bracket. Heres what to know about the competition, how to watch the bears, and where to cast your ballot: What the heck is Fat Bear Week, anyway? If youve never participated in Fat Bear Week, you might be left wondering why a sizable chunk of the internet is getting amped up about livestreams of bears. The answer is that, right now, Katmai National Parks brown bears are in a state of hyperphagia, a period of time when their bodies satiation cues are dimmed in order to encourage them to bulk up as much as possible before winter. Ever since the park turned this biological process into a livestreamed competition more than a decade ago, its fostered a cult fanbase on Reddit, Twitter, and now TikTok. Last year, more than a million votes were cast in the bracket. This is my superbowl, one commenter wrote on the parks Tiktok announcement of this years season. BEST WEEK OF THE YEAR, another added. In an interview with NPR, Matt Johnson, the preserves interpretation program manager, said theres a lot for fans to look forward to this year. “This year’s salmon run was extraordinary, with salmon numbers surpassing anything seen in recent memory,” Johnson said. “As a result, the brown bears of Katmai are well-nourished and looking for other things to do besides scrapping with each other for food.” Where to watch In order to get acquainted with this years contenders, its important to see them in their natural habitat. Katmai National Parks website includes a page dedicated to various livestreams located across the park, including an underwater salmon cam, a mountain view, and a scenic waterfall perspective. How (and when) to vote During the days of the competition, voting is open from 12 to 9 p.m. ET on the parks website. Youll be shown source images of two bears, demonstrating how each contender transformed from their trimmer summer physiques to their current fall figures. Then, simply select whichever bear you think came out on top. The contenders The full Fat Bear Week bracket will be revealed later today. Currently, it seems likely that past champions including 128 Grazer (mother to the junior champion 128 Jr) and last years victor 747 will make a reappearance. Fans are also holding out for the return of beloved superstar 480 Otis, who was missing from the competition last year and has yet to be spotted in 2025. here I am, just a girl, crying for Otis once again, one commenter lamented on the parks recent TikTok sharing that Otiss whereabouts are still unknown. i have rooted for Otis every year, and even if he doesnt show up again I will still root for him. Wherever he is, a fellow fan added.
Category:
E-Commerce
U.S. government agencies will be able to use Meta Platforms’ artificial intelligence system Llama, a senior administration official said, as the Trump administration pushes to integrate commercial AI tools into government operations. The General Services Administration, the government’s purchasing arm, will add Llama to its list of approved AI tools for federal agencies, said Josh Gruenbaum, the GSA’s procurement lead, in an interview ahead of announcing the initiative. Agencies will then be able to experiment with Llama, a free tool, with GSA’s assurance that it meets the government’s security and legal standards. Llama is a large language model capable of processing data, including text, video, images and audio. GSA has also signed off in recent months on AI tools from Meta’s competitors, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Anthropic and Open AI. The companies agreed to sell their paid products at steep discounts and meet the government’s security requirements, GSA has said. “It’s not about currying favor,” Gruenbaum said when asked whether tech executives are giving the government discounts to get President Donald Trump’s approval. “It’s about that recognition of how do we all lock in arms and make this country the best country it could possibly be.” Federal agencies will be able to deploy the tool to speed up contract review or more quickly solve information technology hiccups, among other tasks, he said. Courtney Rozen, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||