Pulte Homes Inc.’s plan to buy Centex Corp. stands to boost the Michigan-based homebuilder’s local operations.
Bloomfield, Mich.-based Pulte said Wednesday it plans to pay $1.3 billion in stock plus $1.8 billion in debt to buy Dallas-based Centex.
Centex was the No. 14 homebuilder in Orange County last year with 50 houses sold here, according to the Business Journal’s February list of homebuilders.
Like others here, Centex is down substantially from the boom years earlier in the decade, when it ranked among the top 10 builders here.
Pulte ranked No. 26 among homebuilders here in 2008.
Miami’s Lennar Corp., which has its operations headquarters in Aliso Viejo, was the largest builder here last year.
Centex now is selling homes at two developments in Orange. Pulte is selling homes in San Clemente.
Pulte has an office in Irvine, as does Centex, which caters to first-time homebuyers.
The deal stands to create the nation’s largest homebuilder. Whether it could be the start of a wave of consolidation in the battered industry remains to be seen.
The buy gives Pulte land in Texas and the Carolinas, which haven’t been hit as hard as other areas.
But Pulte also gets Centex projects in the hard-hit Inland Empire, where it has homes for sale in Temecula, Lake Elsinore and other areas.
