Homebuilding numbers hold steady, sale totals edge up in latest annual rankings

Award recipients representing the top 10 area homebuilders by sales and unit volume were recognized at HBAR’s market forecast event in February. (Jonathan Spiers photo)

While the number of new homes sold in the region continued to outpace the number of new lots coming online, area homebuilders kept up the pace last year in terms of productivity, data from the industry’s local trade group shows.

The Home Building Association of Richmond announced its top 10 lists of its busiest member builders for 2024 based on sales and unit volume. The rankings were unveiled at the group’s annual market forecast held last month at the Short Pump Hilton.

The results were recompiled after the event due to some closings that were not captured in local government data, according to the group, but the additional numbers did not change the rankings for the top 10 builders based on unit volume.

Reston-based Ryan Homes remained at the top of the list with 885 homes built and $370 million in sales.

Stanley Martin Homes, also out of Reston, was second in homes built with 404, while Midlothian-based Main Street Homes had the second-highest sales volume at $226 million. About 50 homes separated the two, but Main Street’s sales volume was higher due to a higher average sale price of $642,500.

Main Street Homes’ Shire Walk townhome development under construction in western Henrico. (BizSense file)

Stanley Martin’s average price was $472,500, putting its total sales at just under $191 million. Ryan’s average sale price was $418,500, the lowest of all the builders on the list.

The following four spots were taken by HHHunt Homes with 345 units and $163 million in sales; StyleCraft Homes with 269 units and $133 million; Eastwood Homes with 230 units and $128 million; and Eagle Construction of VA with 165 units and $115 million.

Rounding out the out the top 10 in unit count were No. 8 Lennar with 151, No. 9 D.R. Horton with 130, and No. 10 Mungo Homes with 124. In sales volume, RCI Builders was eighth with $85 million, Mungo ninth with $77 million, and Lennar 10th with $73 million.

RCI just missed the unit-count top 10 with 118 homes built. D.R. Horton just missed the sales volume list with $67 million.

Eagle Construction had the highest average sales price at just over $700,000. The average sale price among the top 10 builders was over $506,000.

A tally of all of the top-10 builders showed that sales volume among them totaled nearly $1.55 billion in 2024, above the $1.45 billion in 2023 and a return to the $1.5 billion mark reported in 2022. New home closings last year totaled 3,056, 10 more than the previous year but about 200 homes fewer than in 2022.

The data was compiled by HBAR’s Tom Tyler, who joined the group last September as vice president of research after 25 years as an analyst and housing markets director for Integra Realty Resources’ Richmond office.

Last month’s event included a market forecast by keynote speaker John Burns of California-based John Burns Research and Consulting. HBAR President Chad Joyce also provided remarks and announced the rankings.

Chad Joyce

Joyce said that of all recorded home sales in the Central Virginia market last year, 35% – over 4,000 – were new homes, with an average sale price of $540,000. About 2,500 of those were single-family detached homes with an average price of $611,000.

Nearly 5,000 building permits were issued, a 5% increase over 2023, and 2,800 recorded lots were sold at an average price of $121,000.

“All that being said, only 1,870 lots were zoned in 2024,” Joyce said at the event. “The easy math says we will continue to have major lot shortages when the market is demanding 4,000-plus homes annually.”

In a blog post for HBAR earlier in February, Joyce noted the group’s efforts to lobby state lawmakers for local land use and zoning reform, measures aimed at cutting down the length of time it takes to turn around homes by streamlining the approval process for site plans and subdivision plats.

Related bills from Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg of Richmond and Del. Marcus Simon of Fairfax passed the General Assembly and are up for consideration by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The Home Building Association of Virginia has a rundown of those bills and others that passed or failed on its website.