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New home sales slump as affordability, not granite counters, drives demand
Splits and Caps Daily: Action for Agents
August 26, 2025
📈 Market Move:
Not New
New home sales are slumping — down 8.2% year-over-year — even though builders are practically throwing in free toys (rate buydowns, upgrades, price cuts). Doesn’t matter. Unless the house is under $300k, buyers are walking.
Meanwhile, existing homes are actually outselling new ones (rare in history). Builders are sitting on 9.2 months of supply, the fattest pipeline since 2015, which means construction is about to hit the brakes.
The only stuff moving? Affordable homes. Sub-$300k sales jumped to 17% of the market, dragging the median new home price down to $403k — its lowest in almost a year.
Rates dipped to 6.52% after Powell hinted at cuts, but affordability still rules. Translation: the market doesn’t want “dream homes,” it wants the Dollar Menu version.
🌟Quote of the Day:
“It’s not knowing what to do, it’s doing what you know.” — Tony Robbins
⚡ Quick Win:
10-Minute Tidy – Set a timer, clean your workspace. You’d be surprised how much you can declutter in less time than it takes to watch a YouTube video.
🎉 Fun Fact of the Day:
Green Space: 🌲 Some luxury developers in LA are building homes with indoor trees. Forget houseplants — they’re going full jungle.
📚 Book Recommendation:
“Play Bigger” by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, & Kevin Maney — Most businesses play checkers. A few play chess. But the absolute killers? They flip the board, invent a new game, and make everyone else learn the rules. That’s what Play Bigger is about — category design.
The authors break down how the most valuable companies (think: Uber, Salesforce, Airbnb) didn’t just build products, they built categories. They owned the mental real estate so deeply that when you think “ride-sharing,” you don’t think “Lyft,” you think “Uber.” Game over.
Takeaway: Don’t fight for scraps in an existing market. Define your own playing field, name it, own it, and let everyone else look like the knockoff.
If you’re trying to grow something big, this book is like cheat codes for business.
You’re building momentum even when it feels slow.
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