As the housing industry continued its strong push in 2015, many builders across the country posted record-high closings and year-over-year growth. While more money was understandably invested and earned on the public side of the business, the 78 private builders in the Builder 100 closed more than 73,000 homes in 2015.
The well-known nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity International topped the list of private builder closings with 3,237, which was actually a 2.59% drop from its 2014 total.
Houston-based David Weekley Homes was the only other builder to cross the 3,000 closings plateau last year with 3,117. It, too, posted a year-over-year drop in closings—1.61%—but still earned the second spot among private builders.
Five private companies closed more than 2,000 homes, including Denham Springs, La.-based DSLD Homes, which saw a massive 26.62% jump year over year and finished with 2,174 closings. True Homes, based in Monroe, N.C., posted a 21.25% year-over-year growth to finish 2015 with 1,318 closings, good enough for No. 16 among private builders.
The largest year-over-year increase among the top 25 private builders belonged to Denver-based Oakwood Homes, which jumped 28.64% with 1,060 closings, landing at No. 24 on the private builder list. Rounding out the top 25 was First Texas Homes with 1,014 closings.