Atlanta’s largest home builder sold

The nation’s largest home builder confirmed Friday it is buying the No. 1 home builder in Atlanta for $210 million.

D.R. Horton is buying the private Crown Communities. Their combined market share in metro Atlanta will be more than double their nearest competitor.

“It gives D.R. Horton an enormous foothold on the Atlanta market,” said Eugene James, Atlanta regional director of the housing information company Metrostudy.

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 number three builder, the private Peachtree Communities, had 5 percent. PulteGroup, the Michigan company that is moving its headquarters to Atlanta, was fourth, with 3.5 percent market share.

Crown took the top spot in metro Atlanta for the first time in 2013, said John Hunt, a senior analyst with real estate analysis firm Smart Numbers in Atlanta. D.R. Horton slipped to No. 2.

“It was No. 1 by a large margin,” he said. “It’s not two or three homes.”

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