State’s Home Builders Are One-Third of ‘Giants’ List

California builders accounted for more than a third of the top 400 home builders in the nation last year, according to Professional Builder magazine’s 23rd annual report on “Housing’s Giants.”

The 145 California-based builders on the Top 10 list were paced by Riverside-based Fleetwood Enterprises, which led the nation in dwelling units produced in 1989, with almost 35,000--all manufactured housing units.

Three other California builders on the list of the top 10 firms, based on sales revenue, were William Lyon Co., Newport Beach, $1,492,100,000 in revenue from 6,932 houses and apartments, ranking 4th; Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., Los Angeles, $1,322,511,000 in revenue from 5,736 units, ranking 6th, and Watt Industries Inc., Santa Monica, $735,000,000 in revenue from 2,370 units, ranking 9th.

Kaufman & Broad, which ranked 8th in the 1989 survey (based on 1988 building activity), posted the largest dollar volume increase of the 400 on the list, up $419,112,000 from 1988 sales revenues, according to the survey.

According to the report, the top 400 builders accounted for 25.8% of all conventional housing built in 1989, up from 23.3% in 1988, and 69.6% of all mobile homes or manufactured housing, up from 68.6% in 1988.

The average house built by the Housing Giants on the list last year had 2,218 square feet of living area and was priced at $158,500, according to the survey.

TOP 10 BUILDERS BY SALES NATIONWIDE

The country’s top 10 home builders in 1989, ranked by sales revenues: Company: Sales Revenues Trammell Crow Residential Co., Dallas: $2,921,000,000 Centex Corp., Dallas: $2,002,952,000 Lincoln Property Co., Dallas: $1,867,642,000 William Lyon Co., Newport Beach: $1,492,100,000 Ryland Group Inc., Columbia, Md.: $1,400,000,000 Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., Los Angeles: $1,322,511,000 NVR L.P., McLean, Va.: $1,294,389,000 Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Co., Tacoma, Wash.: $975,000,000 Watt Industries Inc., Santa Monica: $735,000,000 Paragon Group Inc., Dallas: $720,526,000

SOURCE: Professional Builder magazine