In some housing markets, competition is less about dozens of builders and more about a select handful of dominant players. In the most concentrated regions, just three builders can account for a significant share of total activity, shaping everything from land acquisition and product design to pricing and incentive strategies.
Using Zonda’s proprietary housing data, we identify the most concentrated markets across the country and explore the structural implications of builder dominance. We then dig into what this consolidation means for both builders and homebuyers, highlighting the advantages of scale alongside the potential impacts on consumer choice, competition, and pricing dynamics.
Top Markets by Concentration
In our research, we frequently analyze market share by evaluating public versus private builder trends, or by measuring new-home activity as a percentage of overall transactions. This analysis takes a different approach, using a specific cut of the data to highlight those markets where just three builders command an outsized share of overall new-home activity.
Among Zonda’s top 50 markets, which tend to be larger, higher volume metros with deeper data history, the share of activity controlled by the top three builders ranges from 26% in Atlanta to 79% in Reno.
The insights in this article are just a snippet of a more in-depth research report published in Zonda’s National Outlook.
