Navigating Tough Times: Mastering Marketing in a Recession

A bi-weekly round-up newsletter of the best new construction and real estate marketing, sales, and news in the industry.

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In This Issue:

💡 The Big Idea: What you need to know about marketing during a recession.
🐝 Industry Buzz: The latest marketing and real estate industry news updates.
🧠 Get Your Learn On: the Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit is coming!
🏆 Quick Win: Don’t forget to update your Google My Business listing.
🧰 Tech Check: Get your marketing running like clockwork with CoSchedule.
🏅 Marvellous Marketing: A standout social post from Level Homes.
📈 Real Estate Market Update: a look at the market stats for August 2024.

... and more!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"Love the easy-to-digest format. Gives me a quick pulse check on the industry and some new things to try."

The Big Idea 💡

Marketing During a Recession: What You Need to Know

With the economy still uncertain, lots of builders are looking to save money. In this article, we’ll cover plenty of tips on how to market effectively during a recession. In this article:

☑️ Understand the psychology of recession and how it affects buyers.
☑️ Position yourself for success in a shrinking market.
☑️ Pivot your media plan to reach more customers.
☑️ And more...

Industry Buzz 🐝

📈 Home Prices Up in Q2 for 90% of Metro Markets.
In the second quarter of 2024, home prices rose in 90% of U.S. metro areas, driven by limited housing inventory and strong demand. The national median single-family existing-home price increased by 8.7% to $402,600, with the West region seeing the most significant gains.

While affordability remains a challenge due to higher mortgage rates, price increases were more moderate compared to previous quarters.

🏘️ How Home Size Demand is Matching With Supply
This article discusses the alignment between home sizes and buyer preferences. According to recent surveys from NAHB and the U.S. Census Bureau, most new single-family homes fall within the 1,600 to 3,000 sq ft range, closely matching what buyers are looking for. However, some discrepancies exist outside this range.

🏗️ Custom Home and Townhome Construction Sees Major Jump in Q2
In the second quarter of 2024, custom home and townhome construction saw an uptick, reflecting a growing demand for personalized and flexible living spaces. The rise in townhome construction is attributed to affordability concerns and a preference for urban living.

The data highlights a shift in buyer preferences toward more customizable options, as well as a trend toward higher-density housing.

Get Your Learn On 🧠 

🤝 Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit
Head out to beautiful Raleigh, North Carolina on October 23 - 24th, 2024, for two days of insightful conversations, collaboration, and sharing of innovative marketing ideas.

You can learn more here: Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit

Quick Win 🏆

Take a few minutes to update your Google My Business listing. Ensure all your contact information is accurate, upload recent project photos, and encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews. A polished and active GMB profile can significantly improve local search visibility and attract more potential clients.

Tech Check 🧰

As marketers, you know the one thing we never have enough of is time. If you want to get more done in less time, then you need to check out CoSchedule. This All-In-One AI Marketing Calendar will help you bring all of your marketing efforts into one place and allow you (and team members) to see, schedule, and share all of your marketing.

AI Prompt Play 🤖

Replace anything within [ ] with your info

Goal: A carousel post informing buyers about home buying misconceptions and setting the record straight. 

Prompt: Hello, I'm a home builder in [city name] I want to create an Instagram carousel post that my ideal client finds valuable and will want to save for later. My ideal client is [persona]. I want the tone to be [tone of voice]. I want the post to have a strong, attention-grabbing hook to keep my audience swiping all the way through until the end. This post should also have a strong hook as the title. Then each subsequent slide will have a header and a short paragraph underneath. It should end with a call-to-action to [CTA, ex: schedule a buyer consultation]. Here is the topic: What are some misconceptions about home buying, and how can you help me set the record straight?

Marvellous Marketing 🏅

Stand-Out Social Post From Level Homes
Today's stand-out social post comes from @levelhomes over on Instagram - we love this client testimonial! Sharing positive reviews from customers serves as powerful social proof and you can keep it pinned to the top of your profile for everyone to see. It shows other prospective home buyers the kind of enjoyable experience they can expect.

Real Estate Market Update 📈

US Market:
According to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors®, the median existing single-family home price for July was $422,600. This is a slight decrease from June’s record high of $426,900 but still a sizable 4.2% increase year-over-year. With the Federal Reserve hinting at a rate cut sometime before the end of 2024, any slight lowering of interest rates will create even more demand in the market, further increasing prices of existing homes.

Canadian Market:
Canada's housing market showed a slight pause in July after June's momentum following the Bank of Canada's first rate cut since 2020. Home sales dipped by 0.7% month-over-month, reversing some gains from June. Despite this, the market remains strong, with sales activity up 4.8% compared to July 2023. With two consecutive rate cuts and further policy easing expected, demand is anticipated to surge, leading to increased housing activity into 2025.

Just For Laughs 😂

Points of Interest 🧐

🗓 On this day
On this day in 1973, the first typewriter was sold to the general public.

🫧 Cost of Inflation
A San Diego man was fined for “liquid littering” after blowing too many bubbles in public.

☕Better Get Up Early
Rather than relocating, the new CEO of Starbucks plans to commute over 1,000 miles each way to go to work.

Whenever you’re ready, there are three ways we can help:

1. Visit our Home Builder Resource Library.
Find guides and resources covering many popular topics to help you sell more homes and grow your company.

2. Book a free Power Hour session.
Tell us about your company and what your biggest marketing challenge is, and we’ll give you actionable advice to put you on the fast track.

3. Hire us to do the heavy lifting.
Whether it’s project work, setting up HubSpot, or acting as an outsourced marketing department, you can rely on our 13+ years of digital marketing experience to deliver results.

About Velocity23

Velocity23 is a growth agency and has been specializing in digital marketing for home builders for 13+ years. As one of the first HubSpot partner agencies to specialize in the home-building industry, we’ve helped builders across the country solve their challenges with content marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing, and marketing automation. Our experience has led to the development of the Growth Engine Framework™️, a marketing system that’s helped our clients achieve:

🖥 7.3M+ website sessions
🙋 108,720+ leads generated
🏠 9,380+ homes sold
💰 $3.2+ Billion in reported client revenue

If you’re experiencing marketing challenges or you want to sell more homes and grow your company, book a call today and let’s see how we can help.

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