Yet, Pulte keeps on building speculative homes without buyers. It has 2,000 lots ready for construction, and it's planning to buy more next year.
It's a business model that is vastly different from those of smaller homebuilders, many of whom have gone bankrupt in the worst housing crisis in decades. In fact, real estate analysts say the largest homebuilders in the Nashville area probably will come out of this recession stronger than most for a variety of reasons that trump the prospects of smaller operators.
The bottom line is: The bigger companies have better access to credit and are sticking through hard times long enough to buy land at low prices and position themselves for a market turnaround.
"Yes, we would like to buy land here in Nashville,'' said Charlie Coleman, Pulte division president in Nashville, who recently arrived from Dallas to lead the local office.
Pulte bought Centex Corp. last year in a deal worth $1.3 billion, which made it one of the largest homebuilders in the nation and the largest in the Nashville area.
"We certainly are looking to grow the business here in Nashville in 2010,'' Coleman said.
In a grassy subdivision off Nolensville Pike near Concord Road, construction crews are putting up insulation and finishing touches on a series of speculative town homes and single-family homes in Concord Place, all priced from $160,000 to $215,000.
Pulte's vice president of sales and marketing, Andy Pfeifer, said the company generally builds about 20 percent of its homes as speculative, meaning without buyers, so that the builder will have an inventory of move-in ready homes to show.
Most banks are refusing to finance speculative construction at all, which has left a number of other builders in trouble. In fact, many banks still refuse to finance the purchase of land.
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