When most people hear "D.R. Horton" or "Lennar," they picture subdivisions where every house looks like its neighbor: same roofline, same garage door, same landscaping. For a certain type of buyer or investor, that sameness feels like a compromise. In an era where interest rates remain elevated and homeownership is increasingly out of reach, volume builders delivering new construction at a lower price point are a critical part of the solution.
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D.R. Horton built roughly 90,000 homes last year. Lennar built over 73,000. At that volume, everything changes. Land acquisition, materials procurement, labor contracts, permitting relationships, and construction timelines are all optimized in ways a regional developer simply cannot replicate. When you're buying windows for 90,000 homes, you don't pay retail. When your framing crews build the same floor plan 10,000 times, they get fast. When your architects design a handful of proven models instead of custom plans for every lot, carrying costs shrink. That efficiency shows up in the overall price.
The numbers bear that out. According to the National Association of Home Builders, new spec homes sold at a median of $153 per square foot in 2024. Custom and contractor-built homes ran $166 per square foot, and that figure excludes the lot entirely. On a 3,200 square foot home, that gap is $41,600 before land, design fees, or carrying costs enter the picture. Factor those in, and the all-in difference between a production home and a comparable custom build can easily reach six figures. Volume builders hold that line through purchasing power and the compounding efficiency of building the same floor plan across hundreds of communities.
Anyone who has watched the Austin rental market knows what happens when housing supply shows up at scale. A wave of new apartment deliveries sent prices down roughly 17% from their 2022 peak, falling to levels not seen since 2021. The same principle applies to for-sale housing. When a builder delivers 1,000 homes into a submarket, that supply competes with existing inventory and moderates prices over time. Volume builders are often criticized for the sheer scale of their developments, but that scale is the point.
These neighborhoods are not for everyone, and I'm not arguing that every new development should look like a D.R. Horton subdivision. Architectural character, walkability, and neighborhood variety all matter. But there is an equally important place in the market for builders who prioritize volume and attainability, and in most real estate circles, that work is met with indifference at best and condescension at worst. In a market where affordability is genuinely strained and supply remains tight, these builders are doing work that matters.
-Ben Michel
Ben Michel is the founder of Ridgeview Property Group, an investment firm specializing in multifamily real estate. Register Here to be notified of available investment opportunities.