Homebuilders have a housing downturn playbook that's proven to be effective time and again. They start by offering incentives like mortgage rate buydowns. If that doesn't work, then builders begin to mark down home prices communities until their unsold inventory has been moved.
Fast-forward to 2022, and homebuilders have clearly returned to their housing downturn playbook, only there's a new wrinkle: institutional investors. In the years following the 2000s housing bust, institutional investors like Blackstone saw an opportunity to buy more directly from distressed builders. The expansion in this so-called "build-to-rent" category means that builders, this time around, are already floating big-time markdowns to Wall Street buyers.
