After the recession whittled out many small home builders, the share of construction of the top 10 builders in Atlanta has doubled (from 22 percent to 44 percent) over the last 10 years.
Without having to deal with the threat of overbuilding, bigger builders have avoided making rash decisions, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
While the housing market crash of 2008-09 hurt the giants — Ryland closed on substantially fewer homes, and Pulte earned billions of dollars less in revenue — it did thin out the competition. Atlanta went from 3,500 builders to 700 by the time the market hit its lowest point.
