Renovations and restoration are the focus of this week's features, which lines up with something we've been hearing anecdotally: More custom builders and designers are taking on whole-home renovations than they used to. Whether that's connected to the slowdown NAHB reported this month (where custom starts fell 9% in the second quarter) is hard to say. If your mix has shifted to include more renovation work, we’d like to hear about it.

We’re also reporting on why kitchen decisions tend to become a bottleneck in a project. If you've watched a job stall over cabinets, appliances, or other kitchen decisions, I'd like to hear how you handle it.

—Pauline Hammerbeck

Signals: What We're Tracking

Custom home starts fell 9% in Q2 to 49,000, NAHB reports, stalling the gains the custom sector has seen since 2023. However, custom work still holds 20% of single-family starts. More on the analysis.

Las Vegas luxury home prices have climbed nearly 60% since 2019, and Realtor.com expects this year's tech IPO activity to send more second-home demand to the valley, along with two mountain towns. See which markets are predicted to benefit from the so called "AI Gold Rush."

Homeowners aged 55 to 64, many of them empty nesters, are hitting peak earning years and tackling kitchen and primary suite renovations they'd been putting off for years, according to NAHB market analysis. They're one of three groups driving remodeling demand. See all three.

Los Angeles County gained more than 10,000 ADUs in 2025, accounting for nearly 40% of the county's new housing units, but it's still not meeting demand. Permitting in LA County (and elsewhere) has loosened for ADUs, becoming steady work for small builders. More on the Los Angeles ADUs.

Around Endeavor's Buildings & Construction Group

Townhomes 2.0: The Best from BALA [Pro Builder] 

One Remodeler's Journey to AI Adoption [Pro Remodeler] 

Design as Power: Cheryl Durst on What the Profession Can Do [i+s]

5 Wildfire-Ready Home Designs [Custom Builder]