Signature Homes thinks 100-day builds can win in a smaller market

Editor’s note: This installment of Built for This is part of HousingWire’s ongoing examination of homebuilding leaders and companies improving their businesses in a housing market that offers little outside help. Signature Homes chairman Dwight Sandlin will join the CEO Power Panel at the HousingWire Homebuilder Summit, Oct. 19–21 in Dallas.Dwight Sandlin does not expect the housing market to solve the problems confronting homebuilders anytime soon.The chairman and co-founder of Signature Homes looks at mortgage rates that remain high by recent historical standards, the lock-in effect keeping existing homeowners in place and an affordability equation that has reduced the number of households able or willing to move.His conclusion is that homebuilders need to plan their businesses around a smaller market rather than wait for the old one to return.“With rates this high for the foreseeable future and with over 60% of existing mortgages below 5%, the market size has shrunk and will not get materially better,” Sandlin told HousingWire TBD. “Our opinion is that the product and the customer experience have to be better to create an emotional buy rather than only logical.” That premise is ...