Public builders account for the majority of U.S. new-home production, leveraging their scale, access to capital, and purchasing power to compete across the country’s largest housing markets. That advantage is reflected in closings, where public builders have doubled their share of activity since 2005.
Even so, private builders continue to maintain a meaningful presence across many of the nation’s top 25 largest production markets. This quick hit examines where they remain most competitive, how their sales rates compare with public builders, and which private companies continue to rank among each market’s largest players.
Private Builder Presence Across the Top 25
Private builder participation differs substantially across the country’s largest production markets. Among the top 25 metros ranked by annualized closings in Q2 2026, private builders accounted for as little as 16% of closings in Las Vegas and as much as 70.5% in Boise.
The insights in this article are just a snippet of a more in-depth research report published in Zonda’s National Outlook.
