Signals: What We're Tracking
🎉Custom home building showed up in 2025. While overall single-family starts fell by more than 6%, custom posted a 3% gain, bringing the market share to 20%.
More: It's a modest bump but confirms what many of you already know: the sector is less sensitive to interest rates and more tied to household wealth and stock market performance.
Keep in mind: These figures only count homes built under contract for a specific client; they exclude the spec side of a custom builder's business.
[Read the NAHB analysis→]
📩Ultra-wealthy clients are joining an invite-only waitlist by a Brooklyn developer. Vetted buyers join the private "Little Black Book" to see semi-custom and spec homes before they hit the market. The developer says clients "enjoy the fruits of a custom renovation without the labor."
Signal: How are you catering to potential clients in markets where inventory is similarly tight? [Read about the waitlist concept→]
Hundreds of stone-fabricators are falling ill with a grave lung disease, blaming the inhalation of tiny silica particles that form when quartz is cut. Manufacturers say engineered stone is safe, blaming improper cutting methods and lack of safety precautions.
Meanwhile: Lawsuits are mounting, and the industry is asking Congress for protection for its $30 billion business, which employees over 100,000 workers. [Read about the hearing in the NYT]