About the survey
From labor shortages to keeping up with shifting buyer demands, builders have a lot on their minds as we enter a new year. We wanted to hear directly from builders about what they’re thinking about and how they plan to tackle 2024 head-on.
Throughout November and December, we collected insights from a diverse group of builders who build communities across 17 states, with 66% of respondents being production homebuilders. With titles like CEO, VP of Operations and Chief Information Officer, these responses give us a snapshot of what is top of mind for high-impact players in the space.
Key Takeaways
Technology takes center stage
- 88% agree or strongly agree that technology applications and software are critical to productivity and success as a home builder.
- 55% plan to invest more of their revenue on technology in 2024.
Tech is top of mind for builders this year, with 88% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that technology applications and software are critical to their productivity and success. This comes as no surprise, given the industry's increasing need for greater efficiency and productivity throughout the homebuilding process.
But success isn’t just simply expanding your tech stack. To drive effective change, , builders need to invest in the right technology. Created exclusively for residential homebuilders, Higharc streamlines operations, improves the buyer experience, and connects teams with a single source of truth, helping to unlock a new level of productivity and efficiency.
By leveraging Higharc’s technology, builders can reduce soft cycle time and costly rework to keep every team and piece of information in sync, from the design to construction.
More agility is needed to manage changes across the business
- 66% of builders agree or strongly agree that changing or updating product specs and options is frustrating.
- 72% agree or strongly agree that handling change across plans, designs, and/or communities is frustrating and costly.
- 43% plan to invest resources into fixing internal operations and workflows
Updating designs and options in home building should be as easy as flipping a switch. But with disconnected, manual systems that lack a single source of truth, builders are stuck with incredibly time-consuming rework, manual change management, and easy opportunities for errors.
That’s why a staggering 88% of respondents agree that handling change is not only frustrating but also costly to their operations.
But with Higharc, you can manage change at scale, keeping your teams, plans and options in sync, helping to reduce costly errors and allowing you to build faster. Using intelligent data and automation in Higharc, home plans can be quickly updated across multiple lots, communities, and regions, saving your team time and eliminating the need for manual updates.
Macro-economic headwinds still expected in 2024
- Builders expect that slowing sales due to interest rates and market fluctuations will be their biggest headwinds in 2024.
- 33% feel optimistic or very optimistic about the homebuilding industry in 2024.
As we enter a new year, the sentiment within the industry is mixed, with only one-third of respondents feeling optimistic about the upcoming year. And it’s not hard to see why — Builders are facing a challenging environment with increasing material prices, uncertain effects of interest rates and fluctuations in the buyer pool.
According to Probuilder’s recent 2024 Housing Forecast survey, only 55% of builders expect to see an increase in sales volume this year. This suggests that many builders are finding ways to adapt, lean into innovation, and maintain the same momentum they experienced in 2023 despite the economic hurdles.
Builders can't control macroeconomic factors, but they focus on gaining agility and investing in innovation to meet changing market dynamics. That’s why Higharc is here to help.
Discover how Higharc can help you become more agile
Reach your full potential this year with Higharc, the only connected cloud platform built for homebuilders to simplify operations and go to market faster than ever.
With Higharc’s centralized data model and generative design capabilities, you can create and manage plans 100x faster than CAD while eliminating slow change management as a result of disconnected systems. It’s your golden ticket to unparalleled speed as a builder in 2024.
