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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Since mortgage rates spiked in 2022, many large homebuilders have tried to make homes more affordable by shrinking them, stripping them down, or pushing buyers farther out. Allan Merrill, CEO of Atlanta-based Beazer Homesa publicly traded builder with a $710 million market capitalization and the 23rd-largest single-family homebuilder last yearbelieves thats the wrong approach. The way I think about it is, I dont want to sell you a cheaper home, Merrill told ResiClub last week. I want to sell you a home that costs you less every month to live inand one that will still hold its value five or ten years from now. Beazers plan focuses on three key areas: lowering the cost to power, insure, and finance a home. If you can take $150 or $200 a month out of your operating cost [monthly payment], thats real affordability, Merrill said. Were not trying to sell you less housewere trying to sell you a better, more efficient one. Allan Merrill [Photo: Beazer Homes] Affordability lever #1: Cutting energy bills through design, not gimmicks The centerpiece of Beazers affordability push is its energy efficiency standard. Every Beazer home is built to the Energy Rated Valuea benchmark that exceeds building codes and emphasizes insulation, air filtration, and low humidity levels. We pride ourselves on building beyond [local] energy codes so you are buying a home from the future today, Merrill says. You dont want to buy a home thats functionally obsolete the day you close. Beazer sees this as more than a sustainability moveits a financial one. Lower energy bills directly reduce a homeowners monthly cost of living, which Merrill calls material savings. Its $100 a month, $200 a month on the margin, he says. The present value of that is in the thousands of dollars, but over the life of the loan could be over $30,000 [in savings]. Beazer says its homes are designed to feel tangibly different: quieter, better insulated, and healthier. It feels different in here, Merrill says. It sounds different. It smells different. A home with double-filtered fresh air and low humidity literally feels different. Merrill says this is all underscored in Beazers new campaign, “Enjoy the Great Indoors.” Affordability lever #2: Lowering insurance costs through an in-house agency The second affordability lever comes not from the home itself, but from the insurance that protects it. Beazer has its own insurance agencyand it gives away the profits. Beazer wanted to have an agency to organize the proposals from the different firms, Merrill explains, adding: But that entity distributes its profits to our charitable foundationand thats actually what we do with title insurance as well. The Beazer insurance agency operates in-house, handling the paperwork and logistics of homeowners and title insurance while keeping buyers costs competitive. Because it isnt structured to make money for Beazer, it can pass along more savings to the buyer. Its a small but symbolic move in a business where hidden transaction fees are common. We dont need to make money on every piece of the home purchase, he says. Were trying to make homeownership more attainable. Affordability lever #3: Reducing mortgage costs with an in-house competition platform The third pillar of Beazers affordability strategy is the companys in-house mortgage platform, which hosts a marketplace of competing lenders. In mortgage, there are literally no economics to us, Merrill says. We are not lenders, we are not brokers, we are in no way in the mortgage business. We have a platform where the banks can compete effectively, directly for the buyers. Unlike some other builders, Beazer doesnt have a captive finance arm that earns interest or fees, he says. Instead, the company uses its internal program to connect buyers directly to multiple banksand takes no profit from the transaction. That competition, Merrill says, often drives rates below what buyers would find on their own. Today, youll see permanent buydowns in the 4.99% range [in many markets], down from the low sixes, he explains. Every 25 basis points costs about a pointbut were not adding a margin on top of that. By building both the insurance and mortgage processes in-housebut running them as service models, not profit centersBeazer is says its able to lower monthly payments for its homebuyers. Building forward, not backward What some other buildersthose going smaller or cutting back on qualityare doing, Merrill argues, would be like Apple bringing back the iPhone 13 or 14 instead of rolling out the iPhone 18. I dont think thats a great long-term strategy, he says. Merrill said the companys approach differs from many of its publicly traded peers, which have leaned on aggressive incentives or cheaper design packages to maintain volume in a high-rate environment. In an attempt to reduce cost, what we see a lot in the industry is were effectively going backward. Beazer, instead, is investing to make each home iteration better than the lasteven as affordability pressures mount. We have continued to innovate, Merrill said. I want to deliver the version [iPhone] 19 and version 20, and have their feature be your low cost of operation. Instead of saying, Good news, you can buy something that was available five years ago. Beazer Homes: Policymakers could help out if they lowered building fees In Merrills view, the housing affordability strain isnt just about interest ratesits about decades o underinvestment in infrastructure and an overreliance on permit and impact fees that push costs onto new homebuyers. In Northern California, its $140,000 [spent by us] before we even break groundjust in [government] fees, Merrill said. Across the country, its $60,000 or $70,000. That number used to be under $10,000 [per home]. He compares having new builds shoulder a disproportionate share of government revenue through impact and permit fees to the way the U.S. runs budget deficits: Weve been living on credit, but instead of running up a big deficit, weve just shifted it to the next generation of homebuyers, he said. Then we complain about why they cant buy homes. Beazer Homes CEO Allan Merrill is among the speakers at ResiDay 2025. ResiClub is hosting the one-day conference on Friday, November 7, in New York City.
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E-Commerce
Toy retail brand Toys “R” Us will open new flagship stores and seasonal holiday shops just in time for the holidays. The initiative is in partnership with specialty retailer Go Retail Group, the company said. The locations will feature products from popular brands such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, Nerf, Lego, and Paw Patrol. Some of the new stores have already opened their doors. According to the company, additional stores will open throughout the season. Heres where you can shop Consumers will be able to do their holiday shopping at the following new Toys “R” Us locations: Flagship stores: Chicago Premium Outlets Aurora, IL Camarillo Premium Outlets Camarillo, CA Arundel Mills Hanover, MD Jordan Creek Moines, IA Westroads Mall Omaha, NE Denver Premium Outlets Thornton, CO Tanger Outlets Deer Park Deer Park, NY Towne East Square Wichita, KS The Chicago Premium Outlets flagship store is already open. Seasonal holiday shops: The following seasonal shops are already open: Great Lakes Crossing Auburn Hills, MI Grapevine Mills Grapevine, TX Lakeside Shopping Center Metairie, LA Tanger Outlets Nashville, TN Crabtree Valley Mall Raleigh, NC The Mall in Columbia Columbia, MD South Plains Mall Lubbock, TX Westfield Southcenter Tukwila, WA Station Park Farmington, UT The following seasonal shops will open soon: Deptford Mall Deptford, NJ Eastland Mall Evansville, IN Mall of New Hampshire Manchester, NH Bay Street Emeryville, CA Twelve Oaks Mall Novi, MI Park Meadows Lone Tree, CO North Star Mall San Antonio, TX Tanger Outlets Sevierville, TN King of Prussia Mall King of Prussia, PA Crocker Park Westlake, OH Walden Galleria Buffalo, NY The social media accounts for Toys R Us will have up-to-date store locations and hours. The locations are also searchable on the brand’s store locator page. “The rollout represents a new chapter for Toys ‘R’ Us, strengthening its place at the center of holiday shopping and redefining family retail experiences,” Gideon Schlessinger, CEO of Go Retail Group, said in a statement. “With new stores nationwide, customers of all ages are invited to discover the season’s hottest toys and rediscover what it means to be a Toys ‘R’ Us kid.” Not your grandfather’s Toys “R” Us This isnt the first time that the Toys R Us brand has made a comeback. The original company, a retail mainstay for decades, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017. It had struggled with debt for years in the wake of a private equity buyout deal in 2005. The toy retailer closed roughly 800 stores in 2018. In October 2018, Tru Kids Brands bought the Toys R Us brands and intellectual property. And the following year, the company opened several smaller stores during the holiday season. Brand acquisition company WHP Global snatched up a controlling stake in Tru Kids in 2021. This acquisition led the toy retailer to partner with Macy’s. The department store began promoting Toys “R” Us shops in its department stores and selling its products online. WHP Global first partnered with Go Retail Group in 2023, at the time announcing plans to roll out Toys “R” Us stores nationwide.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump was geared up for a show of federal force in San Francisco, a city he’s blasted as everything wrong with liberal governance. Then conversations with some of the Bay Area’s most prominent tech leaders and the mayor changed his mind.“I got a great call from some incredible people, some friends of mine, very successful people,” Trump told reporters Thursday at the White House, specifically referencing Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, one of the world’s most valuable tech companies, and Marc Benioff, CEO of software company Salesforce.He said they told him San Francisco was working hard to reduce crime. “So we are holding off that surge, everybody. And we’re going to let them see if they can do it,” Trump said. He said he could change his mind if it “doesn’t work out.”Trump said the increased federal force had been planned for Saturday. He didn’t specify whether he was just referring to National Guard troops, which he had threatened to send in, or if he would also halt a potential ramp up of immigration enforcement. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrived at a U.S. Coast Guard base near the city on Thursday morning, drawing protesters. A careful approach to Trump Outreach from billionaire CEOs clearly had a hand in the rare reprieve Trump handed a Democrat-led city. But Trump also credited Mayor Daniel Lurie, who has worked to avoid direct confrontation with the Republican president since both took office in January. Lurie has governed as an earnest and relentless cheerleader of San Francisco, and repeatedly refused to weigh in on national politics or to mention Trump’s name.Instead, he’s focused on local issues public safety, luring back business and reversing the city’s pandemic-fueled decline. When Trump said repeatedly earlier this week that he’d send the National Guard into San Francisco to quell crime, Lurie noted overall crime is down 26% compared to last year and car break-ins are at a 22-year low.“I told the mayor, I love what you’re doing, I respect it, and I respect the people that are doing it,” Trump said, referencing a phone call the two had Wednesday.An heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and anti-poverty philanthropist, Lurie is a centrist Democrat who had never held office until he ousted then-Mayor London Breed in last November’s election. He has stated no other political aspirations than to improve the city and has said that he will work with anyone who wants to do the same.“I told him the same thing I told our residents,” Lurie said at a Thursday afternoon news conference to address his call with the president. “San Francisco is on the rise. Visitors are coming back, buildings are getting leased and purchased, and workers are coming back to the office.”Lurie said he told Trump that he welcomes the city’s “continued partnership” with the Drug Enforcement Agency and other federal authorities to get illegal narcotics off the streets and contribute to San Francisco’s falling crime rates. Fentanyl has been a major scourge on the city’s streets.“But having the military and militarized immigration enforcement in our city will hinder our recovery,” Lurie said. City reacts with praise and skepticism Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, praised Lurie on social media, saying that he “has demonstrated exceptional leadership.” Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors head coach, called him an “absolute superstar” responsible for the good things happening in San Francisco.The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor, said on X that, “Trump, has finally, for once, listened to reason.” Newsom, for his part, has repeatedly sparred with Trump, particularly after Trump deployed the California National Guard to Los Angeles against Newsom’s wishes.But others are skeptical that Trump will keep his word. Indeed, Trump said he was giving Lurie “a chance” to turn things around and said the federal government could “take criminals out” much faster.“We cannot trust Trump,” said San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, a progressive who runs politically left of Lurie but has a good working relationship with the mayor.San Francisco Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who is also more politically liberal than Lurie, said in a statement that she disagrees with Lurie’s desire to coordinate more with federal law enforcement, saying that “is a dangerous invitation to a fascist administration.” CEOs make an appeal Trump said he received “four or five calls” from business leaders urging him not to send federal force and to let city leaders continue to work on reducing crime.“They’re the biggest people in the world, a lot of the high tech,” he said at the White House. “They want to do it. And I said, ‘I am so honored to let you do it. And if it doesn’t work out, we’ll do it for you very quickly.'”Benioff of Salesforce, who also owns Time magazine, told the New York Times earlier this month that he’d welcome Guard troops to help quell crime ahead of his major annual business conference. He quickly face backlash and then apologized, saying the troops weren’t needed. He confirmed to The Associated Press that he spoke to Trump but did not provide more details. Nvidia declined to comment.In announcing his decision to back off a surge, Trump did not mention other cities in the Bay Area, including Oakland, where he has also threatened to send in federal troops.Some other Democrats who have also taken a less combative approach to Trump have avoided his focus as he deploys Guard troops around the country. He has not, for example, focused on Detroit despite criticism of the city. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has tried to engage with Trump including with White House visits. Associated Press journalist Mike Liedtke contributed. Janie Har, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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