Taylor Morrison drops $45M on St. Johns expansion. by Ronnie Ward october 02, 2026 11:43 AM. ST. JOHNS COUNTY DEVELOPMENT Taylor Morrison just wrote a check for $45.38 million to grab more land in St. Johns County - and that's a signal about where Northeast Florida's housing market is headed next. The homebuilder's latest land acquisition isn't just about adding another parcel to the portfolio. It's a vote of confidence that St. Johns County, already one of Florida's fastest-growing regions, still has room to run. When a major national builder commits nine figures to a single county in a single year, it means they're banking on continued demand - which usually translates to sustained home prices and tight inventory for buyers. St. Johns County has been the growth engine for the Jacksonville metro for years. More land acquisition by Taylor Morrison signals that new neighborhoods, model homes, and price points are coming. For sellers in the region, that demand backdrop keeps values moving upward. For buyers, it means the window to lock in before the next wave of development closes a little faster. When a major national builder commits $45 million to land, they're betting big on future growth and buyer demand. The numbers. * Total Investment: $45.38 million for St. Johns County property * Developer: Taylor Morrison, a top 10 U.S. homebuilder * Region: St. Johns County, Northeast Florida's primary growth corridor * Market Signal: Continued confidence in Northeast Florida housing demand and land values * Impact: Likely new residential communities, model homes, and inventory in the coming 12-24 months Whether you're thinking about buying, selling, or investing in Northeast Florida real estate, stories like this one matter. Major builder land grabs tell you where the market is moving before the headlines catch up. Team Ronnie Ward Helping you make better real estate decisions I show up every day, so all you have to do is follow along. #StJohnsCounty #NortheastFloridaGrowth #FloridaHousing #RealEstateDevelopment #HomebuildersFL #FloridaRealEstate Original reporting: Jacksonville Daily Record, "Taylor Morrison acquires more St. Johns County property for $45.38 million".

Taylor Morrison adds 400 homes to Pinewalk project near St. Johns. St. Augustine Record Aug. 31, 2026, 9:43 a.m. ET National homebuilder Taylor Morrison has acquired an additional property in St. Johns County to extend its Pinewalk master plan for its resort lifestyle master plan communities. The Laurelwood at Esplanade at Pinewalk will feature approximately 400 single-family homes for residents of all ages. Spanning 415-acres, the gated community will feature larger lot sizes for 60-foot and 70-foot-wide homesites with floor plans designed for luxury living, plus an amenity package.

Berkshire Hathaway Alphabet stake reaches $36.6bn as Abel deploys cash. Berkshire Hathaway's Alphabet stake now stands at roughly $36.6 billion, vaulting the Google parent to third place in Berkshire's disclosed equity portfolio after the conglomerate added approximately 48.1 million shares during the second quarter of 2026. The position, revealed in Berkshire's Q2 2026 13F filing on 14 August 2026, places Alphabet just ahead of Coca-Cola's $35.1 billion holding but well behind Apple at $69.7 billion and American Express at $51.9 billion. It is, by some distance, the biggest new bet of the quarter. How the Berkshire Hathaway Alphabet stake was built. Roughly 60% of the newly acquired shares came directly from Alphabet itself, through a $10 billion private placement announced in early June. According to Alphabet's Free Writing Prospectus filed with the SEC on 1 June 2026, the placement was split evenly: $5 billion in Class A Common Stock at $351.81 per share and $5 billion in Class C Capital Stock at $348.20 per share, both priced below Alphabet's closing prices at the time. The remaining roughly $7 billion worth of shares appears to have been acquired on the open market. The private placement formed part of a broader $80 billion equity raise by Alphabet, structured as a $30 billion underwritten offering, the $10 billion Berkshire placement, and a $40 billion at-the-market programme expected to begin in the third quarter of 2026. The scale of the fundraising reflects Alphabet's ambitions in artificial intelligence. Reuters reported that Alphabet had raised its annual capital spending forecast by $5 billion earlier in 2026, to between $180 billion and $190 billion, as it accelerates investment in AI-driven computing through its business tools and custom chips. Abel's first quarter as deal-maker. The Alphabet position was not Berkshire's only meaningful move in the quarter. Greg Abel, who took over as chief executive from Warren Buffett earlier in 2026, completed his first major acquisition when Berkshire closed its purchase of homebuilder Taylor Morrison on 24 July 2026 at $72.50 per share in cash. The deal valued Taylor Morrison's equity at approximately $6.8 billion and its enterprise at roughly $8.5 billion, representing a 24% premium to the homebuilder's closing price of $58.50 on 29 May 2026, according to the company's announcement. Abel described the deal as 'an important step forward' and said Taylor Morrison would 'lead our vision for a unified site-built homebuilding operation.' Berkshire also added around $280 million to its stake in rival homebuilder Lennar during the same period. Delta Air Lines received fresh attention too. Berkshire increased its position by 44%, or roughly $1.6 billion, bringing the holding's value to $5.1 billion across 57.3 million shares. Delta had only returned to Berkshire's portfolio in the first quarter of 2026, several years after Buffett sold it and three other airline stocks at a loss during the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Operating earnings at Berkshire reached $12,983 million in the second quarter of 2026, up from $11,160 million in the same period a year earlier, according to Berkshire's SEC filings. The conglomerate also repurchased $4.5 billion of its own shares in the quarter, the first meaningful buyback activity in two years. Berkshire's cash position fell to $365.5 billion as of 30 June 2026, down 8% from the end of March. Michael Burry, whose wager against the US housing market before the 2008 financial crisis was chronicled in Michael Lewis's book 'The Big Short', used a Substack post to express concern that Abel is moving too quickly. He wrote that his 'biggest fear' had been that Buffett's successor would lack the 'patience for the fat pitch,' and concluded: 'I believe this fear has come true.' Burry clarified he is not recommending a short position in Berkshire. On the selling side, Berkshire trimmed Ally Financial by 7% and cut Capital One by 58%. Bank of America was reduced by a relatively modest 5.9%, but the size of the holding meant that translated into roughly $1.7 billion in value sold, the largest dollar reduction of the quarter. Berkshire has now cut its Bank of America position by 53% across eight consecutive quarters of selling. Whether Abel's early moves vindicate the speed of deployment or Burry's patience argument will become clearer when Alphabet reports its first full quarter of results following the capital raise. Funke Adeyemi spent a decade in corporate banking and fintech before moving to business journalism. She started in trade finance at a major UK bank, moved to a payments company scaling into African markets, and spent her last role leading partnerships at a cross-border remittance platform. She writes about business strategy, fintech, digital banking, and the corporate news that moves markets. She is interested in how companies actually make money rather than how they describe making money in investor presentations. Funke lives in South London. She reads earnings calls the way other people listen to podcasts, and finds them about as reliable. 27/08/2026 26/08/2026