San Diego Has Largest Top 10 Builder Market Share in 2022

In a previous blog post, NAHB analyzed the national data released by BUILDER Magazine. Earlier this month, 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) (Figure 1).  The 2022 data shows that the top 10 builders in each of the 50 markets captured at least 36.8% of the market share (Kansas City, MO-KS) and reached as high as 95.5% (San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA), with an overall average of 73.3%, up from 68.1% in 2021.

Analyzing the map in more detail shows clusters of metro-markets in Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, and Southern California with highly concentrated markets.  Less concentrated markets include metro areas in Texas and metros in the Midwest region.

Among the builders, Lennar Corp. and D.R. Horton both had a presence in 42 of the top 50 metro areas in 2022, followed by PulteGroup with 33 appearances.

From 2021 to 2022, 44 metro areas saw an increase in their top 10 builders’ market share while only 3 metro areas saw decreases.  The top 5 metro areas with the biggest increases were:

1. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (+16.6%)
2. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (+15.9%)
3. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (+12.9%)
4. North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL (+11.7%)
5. Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN (+11.4%)

The three metro areas that experienced decreases in their top 10 builders’ market share were:

1. St. Louis, MO-IL (-10.4 percentage points)
2. Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN (-4.3 percentage points)
3. Salt Lake City, UT (-1.1 percentage points)

The top 10 builder market share in St. Louis, MO-IL has experienced decreases for 5 consecutive years; the metro area reached its peak of 86.8% in 2017 and its market share has since been cut in half to 42.1% in 2022.