New home sales fell to a record low last year, but that didn’t stop the nation’s largest building companies from garnering their largest market share ever, according to the latest count by Builder, a trade journal.
Of the 318,000 new single-family sales and multifamily completions in 2011, 141,618, or 44.5%, were by the 100 so-called big builders, the magazine reported. In 2010, the industry’s giants garnered a 43.4% market share, and in 2006, they accounted for 43.6% of the market.
The country’s largest builder last year was D.R. Horton. The Fort Worth-based outfit closed on 17,176 sales. That’s a 10% drop from 2010, but it was still enough to beat the Pulte Group for the stop spot by nearly 2,000 units. Pulte nailed 15,275 sales in last year, or 11% fewer than in 2010.
The only other builder with more than 10,000 closings last year was the Lennar Corp. The Miami-based builder recorded 10,845 closings, also a 10% decline.
NVR of Reston, Va., with 8,847 closings, and KB Home of Los Angeles, with 5,812, were next on Builder’s top 10 list. For NVR, it was a 15% drop off from 2010; for KB, it was a 21% decline.
Habitat for Humanity, the Americus, Ga.-based company that uses volunteers to build houses for low-income families, was the country’s sixth largest builder last year with 4,970 closings, followed by Hovnanian Enterprises, Red Bank, N.J (4,216); the Ryland Group, Westlake Village, Calif. (3.664); Beazer Homes, Atlanta (3,597); and Meritage Homes, Scottsdale, Ariz. (3,268).
Not one of the 10 largest builders increased their volumes in 2012. The first gain among the giants was recorded by the 15th largest company, the Villages of Lake Sumter in The Villages, Fla., which saw its closing rise by 4%. In fact, according to the magazine, it was the middle-tier builders—those ranked from 11th to 50th—which had the greatest gains in market share.
Still, as in indication of just how dominant No. 1 D.R. Horton really is, the company logged almost three times as many closings as No. 5 KB Home, and almost six times as many as No. 10 Meritage.
