Investment bankers and mortgage industry executives are frequently criticized in the media for their supposedly exorbitant compensation packages — but wait until you see what the top officers at some of the nation's publicly traded home builders earned in 2010.
According to an analysis by Big Builder magazine of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by nine companies, the average earnings last year of the 43 named officers was nearly $4.25 million. That's as in "each."
Moreover, although 2010 was a horrible year for the new home market, the pay packages of housing's top dogs jumped 63% last year, according to the trade publication — from $112.2 million in 2009 to $182.6 million in 2010.
The magazine points out that the managements of the nine companies ruled during a time of great stress and had to re-engineer their operations into leaner, meaner machines. "CEOs were primarily adversity managers" in 2010, the magazine says, adding that the nine builders' senior officers were required to refocus their companies, retain their best talent, "cut ferociously," and restock their land pipelines.
Some firms even managed to eke out a profit.
The best paid home building exec last year was Paul Saville, principal executive officer of NVR, who took home a package worth almost $30.9 million, according to Big Builder's analysis of the company's proxy statement.
Saville's base salary was only $800,000, or just 3% of his total earnings. But he also received $14.8 million in stock awards, $14.8 million in option awards, $481,000 in non-equity incentives and $7,850 in "other" compensation.
The industry's second highest paid executive, Stuart Miller, president and CEO at Lennar, didn't make half of what Saville did. But he still pocketed a package worth almost $9.7 million. Miller's base pay was $1 million. He also earned $7.6 million in stock options, $1 million in non-equity incentives and $68,000 in "all other" compensation.
Third on the list of home building top earners was Larry Mizel, chairman and CEO of MDC Holdings, who earned a total of $9.2 million. Like Miller, Mizel's base pay was $1 million. But he also received $2.1 million in stock awards, $1.7 million in option awards, $2.5 million in non-equity incentives, $1.5 million in a change in the value of his pension, and $365,000 in all other compensation.
