The number of U.S. cities where a typical starter home costs $1 million has surged to 268, up from 80 in 2020, concentrated mostly in California and New York. Katie Hubbard, president of U.S. Capital Markets at Walton Global, said local zoning approvals that take three to five years add thousands of dollars per home and do more damage to affordability than a 50-basis-point rate cut. She noted that Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas dominate new construction thanks to lighter regulation, while institutional investors now own less than 1% of single-family homes, down from a 3% peak in 2022. Homebuilder Lennar is delivering 20,000 homes per quarter by compressing gross margins to 15.6% and running buyer incentives at 12.9%, with an average sales price of $371,000. The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 4.50% as of June 23, 2026, keeping the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate between 6.4% and 6.5%, while consumer sentiment fell to 49.8 in April and housing starts declined to 1.18 million units in May.
Lennar CorporationArticle notes Lennar is compressing margins and offering high buyer incentives to maintain volume, indicating weak demand conditions.
NVIDIA Corporation