Competitive Building Environment

Hello All,

First of all, thanks for coming back to read my blog all about the single family residential construction market/industry in Houston. 

After thinking more about it, I decided that I was rushing too quickly into "Areas" and "Submarkets."  Before getting into the details, some of you might appreciate a bigger picture view of the market.  Foe example, did you know that 15 of the nation's top 20 builders (as measured by Big Builder magazine) are active in the Houston market?  Here's the list (by revenue ranking):

1. DR Horton
2. PulteGroup
3. Lennar
4. NVR (not active in Houston)
5. KB Home
6. Habitat for Humanity
7. K. Hovnanian
8. Ryland Homes
9. Beazer Homes
10. Meritage Homes
11. MDC Holdings (not active in Houston)
12. Standard Pacific (not active in Houston - exited market ~2001)
13. Toll Brothers
14. Taylor Morrison
15. M/I Homes
16. Villages of Lake Sumter (not active in Houston)
17. Weyerhauser (builds in Houston under the Trendmaker name)
18. Shea Homes (not active in Houston)
19. David Weekley Homes
20. Highland Homes

Wow!  Where to start with this information?  We could dedicate months talking about each of these builders and how they position themselves in the market; but again, we are getting ahead of ourselves.  Believe you me, we will definitely delve into each of these operations and try to gain a better of understanding of why they do what they do.  (Disclaimer:  I do not pretend to know exactly why they do what they do, but I have been around long enough to have an educated guess!)

Is there a builder that you'd like to start with?  Say the magic word!

However, before we start that, we need to address two more important topics:

• Types of communities.  There are bascially four types of communities in Houston.  My next blog post will describe each of these four, and give examples of each.  (Try to contain your enthusiasm.)
• Areas and Submarkets.  Yes, I defined them in an earlier post, but I think it is important to understand the physical geography of the different areas before going too much further.  It is my opinion that proceeding without this information is akin to driving to an new destination without directions (or your Garmin).

That's it for today.  Come back next time, or better yet, please subscribe to this blog!!!

Until Next Time,
Houston Home Boy
11/14/2011

PS  Catch me on Twitter @houstonhomeboy