You all, my baby turns 12 today! This is absolutely crazy to wrap my head around having kids that are 12 and 14 since I can clearly remember being that age myself. But here we are. Birthday breakfast request was some Dunkin’ before school and for dinner we shall feast upon Chick-Fil-A because apparently good food choices don’t matter when it’s your birthday. In between these meals, I present to you today’s ONeil Edit.
There’s housing news galore, but I narrowed it down for you to just one article from NAHB that I think pretty well encapsulates the home building market for 2020:
“The housing market continues to be a bright spot for the economy, supported by increased buyer interest in the suburbs, exurbs and small towns,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “NAHB analysis published last week showed that new single-family home sales are outpacing starts by a historic margin.”
In other words, this is quite a time to be a home builder! But it’s not without some stressors, like low inventory and rising building costs.
While home builders are celebrating 2020, Google just took a hit from the DOJ which finally brought forth its anticipated antitrust lawsuit. Essentially, the DOJ says that by influencing search and having access to excessive amounts of data that it doesn’t share with other platforms, Google has an unfair monopoly specifically related to its search advertising. This will take years to play out but is something to watch for sure. It has been likened to the suit that was brought against Microsoft in the 1990’s.
Speaking of monopolies, Facebook has always been a fan of squashing the competition by copying their platforms and then dominating in whatever space their competitors had existed, see Instagram, What’s App, Stories, Instagram Reels, and Facebook Marketplace to name a few examples. Well now they’re moving in on Nextdoor. They’re product is called Neighborhoods, and they’re testing it in Canada.
I thought this useful to mention here, because if this takes off, the space could be super useful for Home Builders. I see it as a space to target with advertising and as a tool that could be used to foster strong neighborhood ties in builder communities. I’ll keep watching this and report back if anything develops.
That’s it from me this week. Stay safe and I’ll see you back here next week. There’s a Homefiniti and Beyond next Friday too. Finally, with only 11 days until the election and early voting beginning on Monday here in Maryland, I wanted to take the time to remind everyone to vote.
