The Top 10 builders captured 43.2% of new single-family home closings (i.e., sales) in 2022, the highest percentage on record based on data released by BUILDER Magazine; this is a 9 percentage point increase from 2021, the largest year-over-year increase since NAHB’s tracking began in 1989. This share represents 276,941 closings out of the 640,500 new single-family home sales reported by the U.S. Census in 2022. However, these closings only represent 27.1% of single-family completions, a broader measure of home building that includes (not-for-sale) home construction.
Data for the past three decades reveals a continued upward trend in the top 10 builder share by closings. In 1989, the top 10 builders captured 8.7% of closings. By the year 2000, the share was 18.7%; and by 2018, 31.5%, reaching above 30% for the first time. After edging down in both 2019 and 2020, the share has broken the record-high in consecutive years, achieving 34.4% in 2021 and 43.2% in 2022. As for the top 10 builder share by completions, the share was at 5.6% in 1989, rose steadily to a pre-Great Recession peak of 17.9% in 2006, and after a brief decline, it has continued a similar steady climb to 27.1% in 2022 (Figure 1). The gap between these lines in 2022 is due to a relative gain in not-for-sale construction, which includes custom and built for rent units.
Nine of the top 10 builders remained the same from 2021 to 2022: the only change was LGI Homes, which was replaced by Toll Brothers. There was one change with regards to ranking; Meritage Homes Corp and Taylor Morrison switched ranks, with the former rising to the fifth position while the latter is now seventh. D.R. Horton remains the top builder for 2022, capturing 12.9% of the market with 82,930 closings (Figure 2). This is the second consecutive year that D.R. Horton has achieved a market share greater than 10% and the 21st straight year that D.R. Horton has occupied the top spot. Lennar is ranked second with 10.7% in market share, which is the first time that the company has reached double-digit market share, and PulteGroup is third with 4.5%. This is the third year that the Top Three builders (D.R. Horton, Lennar, and PulteGroup) have a combined market share of over 20% (2018: 20.4%, 2021: 22.0%. 2022: 28.1%).
BUILDER Magazine also released Local Leaders data on the top 10 builders in the top 50 largest new-home markets in the U.S. (ranking determined by the number of single-family permits), which NAHB will analyze in another post later this week.
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