Davidson Homes has acquired Evermore Homes, another step in the Huntsville, Alabama-based builder’s long-term growth plan.
Following a year where Davidson Homes achieved 35% growth in volume, the Evermore acquisition bolsters its presence in Huntsville and Columbus, Georgia, while expanding its operations into Arizona.
“What was unique about Evermore Homes is that [the deal] complemented Davidson’s existing footprint. In Columbus and Huntsville, we were able to utilize our existing positions, existing operating team, market knowledge, and brand recognition to absorb those communities into existing divisions,” CEO Brandon Jones tells BUILDER.
The opportunity to enter Arizona via Evermore Homes’ footprint in Prescott allowed Davidson Homes to expand into a “market we’ve casually been keeping an eye on,” says Jones. Davidson has added PulteGroup veteran Graham Epperson to serve as division president in Arizona and already has plans to grow within Prescott and beyond.
“We have already started land acquisition expand our footprint in northern Arizona. It is our intention to expand down into Phoenix and throughout the state,” says Jones. “We are going to build upon the legacy that exists [through Evermore Homes] and will expand beyond Prescott.”
Evermore Homes, formerly American Southern Homes, has a similar product type and target buyer to Davidson Homes. As a result, the integration between the companies is clean and a natural fit.
“When we put this together, the opportunity of building on places we already were and having one new market entry, it made a lot of sense for us,” says Jones. “It’s hard to imagine—especially with our strength in Huntsville—that another acquirer could have integrated Evermore as well as I think we are going to be able to.”
Jones says the acquisition also delivers an alignment on culture, an element almost as important as geography and product mix to Davidson Homes. In 2023, the builder placed a high emphasis on recruiting and developing its team and nurturing the company’s internal culture with each new hire.
“We talk a lot about culture at Davidson and the importance of building a team of people that like to work hard, to win, and celebrate our success,” Jones says. “We’ve found a really nice group of people at Evermore that are joining us that match those things. For us, that’s particularly exciting.”
Following the significant volume growth in 2024, Jones says Davidson Homes is projecting similar growth in 2025. Through the first two and a half months of the year, he says the No. 60 company on the 2024 Builder 100 is already realizing the goals set to help achieve the full-year goal.
Davidson Homes’ acquisition of Evermore Homes is its fifth completed deal. The previous acquisitions—including NewLeaf Homes and Kindred Homes in San Antonio—provided the company with a playbook to feel comfortable embarking in a larger deal.
“Evermore is a larger acquisition in terms of size and geography and complexity. But the steps we’ve taken with those prior acquisitions were the reps we needed for an acquisition like this,” says Jones. Here we are a day into the acquisition and you’ll find all of the Evermore communities on the Davidson Homes website. We’ve already begun that transition to ready ourselves to captialize almost immediately on the acquisition.”
M&A Trend
Davidson Homes’ acquisition is the latest example of a trend Builder Advisor Group founder and CEO Tony Avila highlighted earlier in the year: a private builder acquiring another private company.
“Right now we are seeing that another significant trend is more private builders,” Avila shared with BUILDER in February. “Some of the private builders that haven’t necessarily been in the M&A market are stepping in right now.”
In addition to Davidson Homes, private builders Perry Homes, Drees Homes, Empire Communities, and McKinley Homes have all completed acquisitions in the past four months.
