When global markets flinched after President Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping new tariffs, the tremor hit mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital flows with force. IPOs paused. Debt deals stalled.
A Reuters report notes that Klarna and Chime shelved public offerings, and eToro postponed its Wall Street roadshow. One London-based private equity firm backed away from a European tech acquisition in real-time.
In homebuilding, which often mirrors wider market behavior with a lag, the worry has been whether this tariff-induced volatility would freeze a sector that has, against many odds, become one of the most active in M&A since 2022.
Not so fast, says Tony Avila.
We’re currently in process on six M&A transactions, and not one has retraded or delayed due to tariffs," says Avila, founder and CEO of Builder Advisor Group, in an exclusive interview. "We’re focused on buyers who think long-term—three years, 10 years. The noise is real, but the fundamentals haven’t changed."
In other words, even if the headlines scream chaos, the builders Avila advises are looking past the turbulence to the underlying math: demographics, demand, and housing scarcity.
