Hot market pushes revenue toward $3 billion
Nearly 15 years ago, David Weekley Homes’ executives set a goal to hit $3 billion in revenue annually — a number that felt almost out of reach for what was a smaller company at the time. Now the Houston-based national homebuilder is closing in on that milestone after its revenues jumped to $2.79 billion in 2021 as homebuying surged across the country.
“Fingers crossed we’re hoping that we hit that this year; that’d be a huge goal for us and so now we’ll start discussions on what’s next,” said Chris Weekley, president of David Weekley Homes, which operates in 19 cities.
The company’s revenues climbed nearly 12 percent last year from $2.5 billion in 2020, landing David Weekley Homes at No.7 on the Chronicle 100’s list of top private companies. It also ranked No.13 among homebuilders for most housing starts in Houston last year with 958.
Like other homebuilders, David Weekley battled building materials and lot shortages that forced it to limit sales and manage customer expectations around build times.
“It was a challenge at all fronts. But I’m proud to say that we had great customer satisfaction scores during 2021 and we had financial results as well,” Weekley said.
The firm’s 1,598 employees — including 434 in Houston — also gave their employer high marks, which helped the company rank No.9 on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For this year.
Despite limiting sales, David Weekley’s sales rose 1 percent at both a national and local level with 5,619 closings nationwide and 1,000 closings in Houston last year.
Strong demand and limited inventories are continuing to drive up prices. Year to date, average prices for David Weekley homes in Houston are about $465,000, compared with nearly $443,000 in 2021.
Looking forward, Weekley said the firm wants to deepen its reach in relatively new markets of Portland, Ore., Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Salt Lake City. Of course, it will also continue to keep a heavy presence in its hometown.
“It was a blessing to be able to survive COVID,” Weekley said, “and we consider it a privilege to be able to build in Houston and continue to grow here.”