The Lennar investment is just the latest of several bets Abel has made on U.S. homebuilders since taking over the CEO position from Buffett.
Berkshire Hathaway, the major holding company previously championed by Warren Buffett, has made its third major investment in the U.S. homebuilding sector this year.
The company increased its stake in Lennar, America’s second largest homebuilder, by 94% in the third quarter, according to an SEC filing from last week. With this addition, Berkshire’s holdings of Lennar have jumped more than threefold since the beginning of 2026, housing analytics research firm ResiClub found.
Buffett’s successor, Greg Abel, has called the move a long-term investment in the homebuilding industry. The Lennar investment is just the latest of several bets Abel has made on U.S. homebuilders since taking over the CEO position from Buffett in January.
On May 31, Berkshire announced it was acquiring America’s sixth-largest homebuilder, Taylor Morrison. The deal will make Berkshire the country’s forth-largest site-built homebuilder, as it already owns Clayton Properties, America’s 12th-largest homebuilder, according to ResiClub.
In July, Mungo Homes, which is part of Clayton Properties, announced it was acquiring America’s 65th largest homebuilder, McGuinn Homes out of South Carolina.
Abel’s investment into American homebuilders continues with the latest round Lennar stock buying. After the latest purchases, Berkshire Hathaway owns around 11% of Lennar, according to SEC filings.
Lennar shares have been easy to buy, as it has been one of Wall Street’s most sold-off homebuyer stocks in recent years. The company's stock finished the third quarter down 49.7% from its October 2024 high.
Since Dec. 31, 2019, Lennar’s stock price has increased only 44.2%, significantly below the S&P 500, which has increased 138.6% in the same period. It also trails peers such as D.R. Horton, which is up 152.6%, PulteGroup, which is up 193.8%, and Toll Brothers, which is up 242.7%.
ResiClub CEO Lance Lambert suggests that part of the reason for Lennar’s struggle is its heavy presence in entry-level Sun Belt markets, which have been significantly affected by the cooling since the pandemic-era housing boom.
To keep sales from falling further and keep property moving, Lennar has been among the most aggressive builders in cutting net effective prices. The company’s average sales price is down 24.2% from its 2022 peak, according to ResiClub.
The impact of these cuts has been seen. In quarter one 2026, Lennar had a gross margin of 15.2%, which ticked up to 15.6% in quarter two and 15.8% in quarter three. Despite the slight increase, it was still the company’s weakest third quarter since 2009.
The Lennar investment is just the latest of several bets Abel has made on U.S. homebuilders since taking over the CEO position from Buffett on January 1, 2026. (Stock image) (Bloomberg via Getty Images) Many U.S. homebuilders have had to make changes to survive the housing market's post-pandemic cooling period. Housing demand has come down while mortgage rates have stayed high, leading to price corrections in many regional housing markets.
Some of the nation’s largest builders have had to sacrifice their margins by offering larger buyer incentives, mortgage rate buydowns, and price concessions to keep sales from falling further.
Despite the rocky homebuilder landscape, Able and Berkshire Hathaway are making good-faith bets on the struggling sector.
When making the choice to invest in Taylor Morrison and other homebuilders, Able was aware that he needed to look beyond the current weakness of the homebuilding sector, he said on a visit to CNBC’s Squawk Box on Sept. 2.
“When we looked at housing and housing specifically in North America, we were taking a very long-term view, that American dream will continue to exist. And five years and 10 years from now, this will be a very strong asset for Berkshire,” he said. “We did see it from Berkshire’s perspective that it was going to be a bumpy road for a while. … We don’t envision a quick recovery there, but we do see it as an industry that we definitely want to be invested in, and we’re invested in for the the long-term.”