Volume Builder Pulling out of San Antonio Market

Builders have been rampant in San Antonio for the past few years and it looks like they're finally hitting the breaks. From Mysanantonio.com – Choice Homes is ceasing area operations after building about 225 area homes in the past five years. Its remaining 340 lots are under contract to other builders. The privately held Choice Homes has also built in the Austin area but pulled out about 18 months ago.

Choice Homes President Dan Couture said the company could not reach its goal of building 750 to 1,000 homes a year in San Antonio because it did not own or control enough vacant lots. Volume builders not only need to secure a large number of lots, but they need them close together or at least clustered in groups of 50 to 100.

"It's not only the volume of lots but the spatial distribution of lots," said Jim Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "Their economies of scale are to take their building crews and kind of keep them concentrated in one geographic area. They can schedule out their construction and not worry about the time delay of traveling around the city. That's why so many of the big developments are around the periphery of San Antonio."

Choice Homes will now focus on its home base in Dallas and on Houston.