In the wake of Standard Pacific and The Ryland Group’s merger announcement, real estate analyst for The Wall Street Journal Kris Hudson poses the question, is it better to merge or to wait?
“Well, there definitely aren’t as many home builders overall now as there were prior to the downturn, since scarce financing and depressed sales have wiped out many smaller, private builders,” Hudson writes. “There are, however, more publicly traded builders now than in past years.”
He adds that some analysts say the current number of U.S. public builders, 22, is too many, causing all but the “largest and best-run to get the attention of institutional investors.”
