Ranking County-Based Home Builders : 29 Home Builders in County Have Sales in Top 400

How big is the home-building business in Orange County? Professional Builder magazine’s list of the nation’s 400 largest builders ranked by 1987 sales includes 29 based in the county. That is 7% of the total, based in a county that contains about 1% of the U.S. population.

The 29 companies built homes valued at about $4.5 billion in 1987, according to the magazine.

William Lyon Co., Newport Beach, led county-based builders with a No. 7 national ranking on sales of $821 million. However, the company ranked only 18th in number of units built. That pattern was repeated throughout the list of county-based builders, reflecting the high prices of new homes here. All of the top 10 builders here ranked higher in sales than in units built.

Many of the companies are looking beyond Orange County’s borders for home-building opportunities. For instance, Standard Pacific L.P. of costa Mesa, one of the few publicly traded home builders here, does 80% of its construction outside the county.

The reason is simple, said John Withers of the Orange county chapter of the Building Industry Assn. “There’s not that much land in the county left to build on,” he said.

The county’s fifth-ranked builder, Presley Cos., was acquired by Lyon last year as part of a $325-million purchase of Pacific Lighting Real Estate Group. The magazine, which listed the companies separately, said combined sales at Lyon and Presley totaled $1.15 billion in 1987.

The Building Industry Assn. has estimated that 25% of jobs created in Orange county since 1982 are related to the building industry, while the Construction Industry Research Board has estimated that 250,000 people in the county, almost 10% of the population, depend on the industry for their livelihood.

HOW COUNTY-BASED HOME BUILDERS RANK NATIONALLY

Builder Sales 1988 1987 Units (thousands) Rank Rank Built William Lyon Co., Newport Beach $821,000 7 8 6,634 Lusk Co., Irvine 394,452 25 37 1,783 Standard Pacific L.P., Costa Mesa 356,943 28 34 1,731 Mission Viejo Realty, Mission Viejo 330,000 31 39 1,795 Presley Cos., Irvine 325,000 32 - 2,000 Citation Builders, Tustin 310,000 36 46 2,200 Warmington Homes, Costa Mesa 221,034 49 69 1,287 Fieldstone Co., Newport Beach 201,000 57 59 1,158 Bramalea California, Costa Mesa 138,458 89 - 585 Barratt American, Irvine 136,093 92 78 1,065 RecreActions Group, Newport Beach 113,000 120 - 648 Woodcrest Development, Irvine 113,000 120 191 746 Stein-Brief Group, Laguna Niguel 106,600 132 - 195 Regis Homes Corp., Newport Beach 104,224 136 61 893 Sterling Homes Corp., Irvine 83,584 180 262 392 Pacesetter Homes, Newport Beach 75,500 202 260 586 California Communities, Costa Mesa 75,000 204 244 451 Pennhill Co., Newport Beach 74,727 206 368 303 Covington Technologies, Fullerton 71,588 215 172 572 J. Ray Construction, Irvine 59,000 254 280 300 Century American Corp., Orange 54,000 269 332 488 Zellner Communities, Costa Mesa 51,355 284 - 308 Coast Construction, Brea 47,100 304 311 211 Sand Dollar Development, Irvine 43,000 330 214 207 Ira L. Brummell Dev., Fullerton 38,220 353 355 1532 Merickel Development, Costa Mesa 36,689 360 - 347 Woodview Development, Santa Ana 33,800 384 - 256 H.R. Remington Prop., Laguna Niguel 33,770 385 - 106 J.P. Rhoades Development, Santa Ana 33,528 388 - 179

Builder 1987 Rank By Units William Lyon Co., Newport Beach 18 Lusk Co., Irvine 72 Standard Pacific L.P., Costa Mesa 75 Mission Viejo Realty, Mission Viejo 71 Presley Cos., Irvine 57 Citation Builders, Tustin 54 Warmington Homes, Costa Mesa 101 Fieldstone Co., Newport Beach 117 Bramalea California, Costa Mesa 209 Barratt American, Irvine 129 RecreActions Group, Newport Beach 198 Woodcrest Development, Irvine 175 Stein-Brief Group, Laguna Niguel 365 Regis Homes Corp., Newport Beach 155 Sterling Homes Corp., Irvine 281 Pacesetter Homes, Newport Beach 208 California Communities, Costa Mesa 255 Pennhill Co., Newport Beach 315 Covington Technologies, Fullerton 214 J. Ray Construction, Irvine 320 Century American Corp., Orange 238 Zellner Communities, Costa Mesa 313 Coast Construction, Brea 357 Sand Dollar Development, Irvine 361 Ira L. Brummell Dev., Fullerton 84 Merickel Development, Costa Mesa 294 Woodview Development, Santa Ana 340 H.R. Remington Prop., Laguna Niguel 389 J.P. Rhoades Development, Santa Ana 370

Source: Professional Builder magazine