The start of 2020 for new-home building looked optimistic, with permits at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.55 million in January—the highest since 2006—and home sales and construction spending up. It seemed home building had finally recovered from the Great Recession. But it wasn't long before everything was turned on its head. By Feb. 25, the Centers for Disease Control had warned that the U.S. was heading toward pandemic status with COVID-19. By March 13, President Trump has declared COVID-19 a national emergency. And the rest, as they say, is history.
It's history, but the pandemic forced rapid changes that will linger from the present well into the future, creating a new normal from which no industry is completely exempt. And housing is certainly no exception.
While housing fared somewhat better than many other industries, largely because many states and municipalities deemed construction activity to be “essential," with COVID safety measures put in place so some measure of work could continue, there is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted construction, made it difficult for many households to pay for shelter, and seriously hurt the housing sector overall.
Home builders large and small had to adapt to survive, finding new ways of working and innovating to continue doing business.
Each Housing Giants Report is a unique snapshot that reflects the perspective of that particular time, and so it is for 2021.
The Biggest Builders in the U.S. by Revenue: 2021 Housing Giants
Scroll down to see the ranked list of 2021's Housing Giants and take a deeper dive into the unique challenges of the past year and how home builders tackled them—and continue to grapple with them—in Pro Builder's 2021 Housing Giants Report:
New and old challenges confronted the housing industry in 2020, and it may never be the same.
You still need a checkbook, but for home builders finding and acquiring land also requires planning, perseverance, and thinking outside the box.
Never before have home builders had to navigate a market where houses are pre-selling fast while the cost of so many resources is rising and so many supplies are constrained at the same time.
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MORE HOUSING GIANTS DATA: Additional 2021 Housing Giants ranking lists—home builders ranked by number of closings, housing types, and location of homes built
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Click the attachment below to access a PDF of the Housing Giants rankings list from Pro Builder's May/June 2021 issue:
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| Rank | Previous Rank | Company | 2020 Housing Revenue $ | 2020 Closings/Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 9 | Meritage Homes | $4,438,000,000 | 11,834 |
| 7 | 8 | Clayton Properties Group | $5,251,538,246 | 56,253 |
| 6 | 6 | Taylor Morrison | $5,863,652,000 | 12,524 |
| 5 | 5 | Toll Brothers | $6,937,357,000 | 8,496 |
| 4 | 4 | NVR | $7,328,889,000 | 19,766 |
| 3 | 3 | PulteGroup | $10,579,896,000 | 24,624 |
| 2 | 1 | Lennar | $20,840,159,000 | 52,925 |
| 1 | 2 | D.R. Horton | $21,494,900,000 | 71,592 |
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