HMS Blog

Over the past two decades, builders have poured money into CRM platforms to understand customers and ERP systems to understand operations. Product — the plans, the specs, the materials, the variations — never got the same treatment. That's now catching up with the industry at exactly the moment margins are tightest and AI is reshaping what "efficient" even means.

Redfin's newest report tracks a meaningful shift for entry-level housing, and it's one builders active in the starter-home segment should be watching closely.

Every few years, a headline declares that middle-class homeownership is over — a postwar accident that can't be repeated. It's a compelling narrative, but it doesn't hold up against what's actually happening on the ground. Homeownership hasn't disappeared. It has relocated to the markets still willing to approve, entitle, and build it.