Atlanta’s largest home builder, Crown Communities, is being purchased by D.R. Horton, the biggest home builder in the country, for $210 million.
Crown will operate as a separate division at Texas-based D.R. Horton, the company said in a press release. Neither company returned phone calls seeking comment.
The combined company will have more than twice the market share of its closest competitor.
At the end of the first quarter, Crown had 6.7 percent of all new home closings in metro Atlanta, while D.R. Horton had 5.9 percent market share. The No. 3 builder, Peachtree Communities, had 5 percent. PulteGroup, the Michigan company that is moving its headquarters to Atlanta, was fourth with 3.5 percent market share.
The acquisition includes control of about 3,400 home lots through option contracts, and 2,350 lots Crown Communities currently has. D.R. Horton will also get Crown’s sales backlog of 420 sold homes and 640 homes in inventory.
In 2013, Crown closed 1,540 homes that cost an average of $244,000. The private company’s revenues were $375 million last year, D.R. Horton said. It is ranked as the 28th largest builder in the United States by Builder Magazine.
“It gives D.R. Horton an enormous foothold on the Atlanta market,” said Eugene James, Atlanta regional director of the housing information company Metrostudy.
D.R. Horton board chairman Donald R. Horton said in a statement that the purchase adds two markets to its footprint and strengthens its presence in other cities.
“We believe the combined D.R. Horton and Crown team will be a strong platform for further growth in these dynamic markets in the Southeast,” he said.
In the 12 months that ended March 31, D.R. Horton closed 25,712 homes in the country. It has operations in 27 states.
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