Homebuilder buying MLB team
The regionally known Dream Finders Homes brand is in line for a boost, with Chairman and CEO Patrick Zalupski set to buy the Tampa Bay Rays and succeed Stuart Sternberg as the MLB team's owner.
Major League Baseball owners on Monday unanimously approved a Zalupski-led group's effort to purchase the team. Zalupski and his team are expected to push for a new stadium in the Tampa, Florida, area after Hurricane Milton damaged Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg last year and displaced the team this season. The sale, with a likely price tag in the $1.7 billion range, could come later this week, according to media reports.
Jacksonville, Florida-based Dream Finders was the 14th-largest U.S. homebuilder based on 8,583 sales last year, according to Builder magazine. Still, the company is a regional player, and Zalupski is buying the team at least partly because he wants to make Dream Finders more of a household name, according to Justin Benefield, academic director for Auburn University's Winchester Institute for Real Estate Development.
"He's hoping that association brings positive notoriety," Benefield told Homes.com.
Single-family rents slowing
Rents for single-family homes nationwide have cooled, according to a study.
Rent prices increased an average of 2.3% in July, down from 3.1% a year earlier, according to the latest data from research firm Cotality. Among the 10 largest metropolitan areas, Chicago had the highest at 5.1%, while New York-New Jersey-White Plains was second at 3.7%.
Miami, where annual single-family home rent growth topped 40% in 2022, posted no gain.
"Even markets like Los Angeles, which had been buoyed by post-wildfire demand, are now cooling off," said Molly Boesel, the firm's economist, in a statement. "Chicago stands out as the exception, leading the nation in rent growth amid tight inventory and resilient demand.”