New-home price premium hits record low—Lennar says small investors are taking notice

Are you a single-family landlord?

If yes, you’re invited to participate in the Q4 2025 Stessa-ResiClub Real Estate Investor Survey. Your response would be anonymous.

Traditionally, most mom-and-pop investors have focused on existing homes, often sourcing deals through their local MLS. But as repair costs and insurance premiums rise, resale inventory turnover at decade lows, and many sellers hold firm on price, the case for buying new homes has become increasingly compelling.

While homeowners—first-time and repeat—will always make up the vast majority of buyers for Lennar, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, the company says it’s working to improve the buying experience for mom-and-pop single-family investors.

Back in August, the giant homebuilder launched the Lennar Investor Marketplace, a digital platform that lets retail single-family investors browse and purchase new Lennar homes specifically curated for rental use.

“We’d done a lot to cater to the institutional buyer—just in terms of inventory tapes and selling to institutions—but we hadn’t really had as robust of a solution for the retail investor,” said Nate Williams, vice president of Build-to-Rent and SFR Initiatives at Lennar.

That gap led Williams and Davis Moore, Lennar’s director of Build-to-Rent and SFR Initiatives, to brainstorm what a modern investor experience could look like. The result was the Lennar Investor Marketplace, an online portal where investors can identify communities with favorable rental potential, access rental comps, view yield estimates, and even line up property management support—all in one place.

 "We identified the need for an all-in-one solution where investors could underwrite opportunities, view rental comparisons, and access relevant data in a single location," Williams explained. "Our goal was to deliver a sophisticated data solution that empowers retail investors with the same level of insight and institutional-grade tools traditionally reserved for large-scale buyers."

Reducing friction for rental buyers

“We view the marketplace as a way to offer not only strong yield opportunities but also significantly reduced risk," Williams said. "Investors are purchasing brand-new homes backed by an industry-leading warranty, rather than facing months of vacancy and uncertainty rehabbing older properties, not knowing what’s in the walls.”

He added that today’s new homes are built to meet—and in many cases exceed—current building codes and often come equipped with smart thermostats, fiber-optic connectivity, and energy-efficient systems that make them more “future-proof” compared to older housing stock.

That efficiency advantage, Williams said, often translates into lower ongoing expenses: “There’s embedded energy efficiency in a new home—utility costs are lower when your home is built to a higher standard. It simply lives differently”

Managing from afar

The platform also integrates with third-party property management firms to make remote ownership more practical.

"We went out and negotiated preferred rates with our property management partners leveraging the size and scale of Lennar and the more straight-forward realities of managing new homes,” Williams said. 

Through partnerships with firms such as HomeRiver Group, Evernest, Marketplace Homes, and Roofstock, investors can purchase a property in, say, San Antonio or Tampa, and immediately hand off leasing and management duties. “If you live in the Bay Area but want to buy a home in San Antonio, you can now make that investment easily and simply hand off the rest,” Williams said.

The new-home premium has disappeared—tilting the scales toward new construction

For the first time in modern housing market history, U.S. single-family new construction, in aggregate, is no longer selling at a premium to existing homes. According to the ResiClub New Home Premium Index, the median sales price of new single-family homes in August 2025 was -0.2% lower than the median sales price of existing single-family homes—an all-time low. That’s a dramatic shift from January 2013, when the typical new home sold for +38.4% more than a comparable existing home, marking the highest premium ever recorded. 

This reversal underscores how the post-pandemic housing cycle has reshaped market dynamics. While home prices have experienced some downward pressure—particularly in pandemic-era boomtowns—since mortgage rates peaked in 2022, existing homeowners have largely resisted those declines. That coupled with lock-in has seen existing home turnover fall to multidecade lows. Meanwhile, new-home prices have adjusted more meaningfully from the 2022 peak, aided in part by builder incentives and the construction of smaller, more affordable homes. 

For investors, that shift could create an unusual arbitrage opportunity. Why pay $400,000 for a 20-year-old home that might need a new roof or HVAC system when you can buy a brand-new, energy-efficient home for the same price? New homes also come with builder warranties, modern layouts, and lower operating costs thanks to higher energy standards and integrated smart-home technology. The lack of a new-home premium is a key reason Lennar believes new construction has never been more compelling for mom-and-pop single-family investors.

A wider net

Most institutional buyers stick to strict “buy boxes”—narrow parameters for geography, price, and product type. Lennar says that leaves many markets with “strong” long-term rental fundamentals off the radar of the big funds.

“There’s a lot of consistency with the institutional buy box, which makes certain markets, even if they have good local demographics and good local rental opportunities, just not a place they’re going to go,” Williams said.

That dynamic, he said, creates opportunity. Moore echoed that point, describing the marketplace as a way to “connect individuals with quality new homes in desirable neighborhoods—many of which aren’t a focus for larger investors.” For these buyers, he said, being able to acquire in a community that has a healthy mix of owner-occupied and rental homes can be an attractive differentiator.

Opportunity markets for investors

The Lennar Investor Marketplace opens access to communities that may not be on every investor’s radar—but can offer compelling rental upside, Lennar says. Moore points out that some of the best opportunities are highly localized, often outside the top 10 headline growth markets.

“As we dug into the numbers, we saw how many homes underwrote well in markets that are outside of the top markets you see most commonly in the media—that was a big aha moment for us,” Moore said.

These markets include smaller metros or secondary areas within larger regions, where home prices remain relatively affordable and demand for rental housing is “strong”. Examples include Alabama; Myrtle Beach and Columbia in South Carolina; Fresno and Bakersfield in California; and parts of Oregon, where homes can be underwritten for solid rental returns.

Moore emphasized that even within a single metro, opportunity is hyper-local: “A deal close by may make a lot of sense, and another one close by may not, because of taxing jurisdictions or special assessments.”

Williams adds that these markets also offer another advantage: many of the homes in these communities are owner-occupied, creating more balanced neighborhoods for investors. “I think you could reasonably assume that’s attractive, to be purchasing homes in communities with a healthy balance of owner-occupied and rental homes,” Williams said. 

Where BTR heads in 2026 and beyond?

Speaking at ResiDay 2025 on Friday, Parkland Communities President Jim Jacobi laid out what’s really going on in build-to-rent right now—and where things are headed in 2026, 2027, and beyond.

As some developers pull back and multifamily completions roll over, Jacobi says he saw a mild decline in materials prices this year—and over the past 60 days has seen labor costs fall some as well.

Watch Jacobi’s full ResiDay 2025 interview here.

Note: Lennar Investor Marketplace is currently a sponsor and is running an ad campaign in the ResiClub newsletter.

Nothing in this newsletter is investment advice.