The OC homebuilding industry experienced a downturn in 2024 after showing signs of life in 2022 and 2023.
Nine of the 13 builders on this year’s list reported fewer homes sold compared to last year, with Tri Pointe Homes, Landsea Homes Corp., Taylor Morrison, Trumark Homes and KB Home showing the biggest drops.
The top 13 builders in Orange County sold a cumulative of 2,253 attached and detached houses in the area, according to this week’s Business Journal list of homebuilders. That’s down 23% from 2,912 in 2023.
Attached home sales declined 15% to 1,345, while detached home sales dropped 31% to 908.
There just isn’t enough available land in Orange County to build new houses, according to Allison Rawlins Tift, a senior vice president at real estate consultancy Land Advisors Organization.
“I believe you will find that there are far fewer communities available for sale – we’ve never seen so little supply of new home communities in our Quarterly Market Overview, and it continues to go down,” Rawlins told the Business Journal.
“The homebuilders all echo the same sentiments about wanting or needing any mapped/entitled/finished lots available in the county, but there is a similar lack of supply of future lots available for homebuilders to acquire and then build upon. So, the demand is still great for the right product in the right markets,” she continued.
Tri Pointe Sales Fall
It was a mixed bag of results for the 13 builders featured on the list, with only five of them showing growth last year. One homebuilder, Mission Viejo-based PulteGroup Inc., showed flat sales in 2024, while nine companies reported year-over-year declines.
California Pacific Homes Inc. reported the biggest jump last year, with 200% year-over-year growth in homes sold. The Irvine-based homebuilder, shooting up from No. 13 to No. 6 for 2024, reported 135 homes sold in Orange County in 2024, with 111 of them in the detached houses category, a 484% year-over-year jump.
The Olson Co. reported 104% year-over-year growth, with all 92 homes it sold in the attached home category. The Seal Beach-based homebuilder climbed from No. 13 to No. 10.
Tri Pointe Homes reported the largest drop on the list, falling from third in 2023 to eighth for 2024. The Irvine-based homebuilder sold 95 houses in total last year, a 67% decline from 2023.
Scottsdale, Arizona-based Taylor Morrison did not sell any attached homes in 2024 – compared to eight sold in 2023. The homebuilder slipped one spot from 12 to 13, with 25 sales – all detached houses – in Orange County for 2024, a 59% year-over-year drop.
Also falling on the list were Trumark Homes and KB Home, with the former ranking 10th on this year’s list – compared to seventh last year – with a 52% drop in houses sold.
KB Home fell one spot from 11 to 12 after reporting a 44% drop in total houses sold for 2024.
Lennar Corp. and Toll Brothers Inc. retained their spots at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, despite selling fewer houses in 2024.
Miami-based Lennar Corp. had the highest volume of sales for 2024, closing on 936 attached and detached houses in Orange County. But the homebuilder’s 2024 totals across the county fell 15% compared to 2023, when it sold 1099 homes.
Toll Brothers, meanwhile, reported it sold 37% fewer houses in 2024, compared to the previous year. The Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based company sold 94 attached houses in Orange County for 2024, compared to 82 in 2023. Toll Brothers, however, saw its detached house sales decline from 339 in 2023 to 172 in 2024, a 49% drop.
Irvine Pacific, the one-time homebuilding arm of Irvine Company, did not make this year’s list after ranking fourth last year. An Irvine Co. spokesperson confirmed Irvine Pacific is no longer building houses.
Cautious Optimism?
Orange County’s homebuilding market might have slowed down in 2024, but Tom Baine, Landsea Homes’ California Division president, expressed optimism about the rest of 2025.
“Landsea Homes experienced steady sales activity in Orange County in 2024. We currently have 10 actively selling communities across Southern California and look forward to launching sales for our newest Orange County community, Essex + Gage in Huntington Beach, this summer,” Baine told the Business Journal. “We continue to see motivated homebuyers across Southern California, especially in Orange County. We remain optimistic about the new home market despite some of the current market challenges, thanks to the continued limited supply of existing home inventory.”
KB Home reported 53 OC homes sold in 2024, a 44% decline from 2023; however, the company was able to increase its OC revenue to $6.9 million in 2024, according to a recent regulatory filing. The same report showed KB Home’s homebuilding revenue for 2022 was nearly $6.9 million – about 0.4% less than what was reported for 2024.
Data for the list was provided by the Newport Beach-based real estate research firm Zonda, augmented by data from individual builders and the Business Journal.
