CEO has big plans for prolific homebuilder
For Todd Chachere, the CEO of Perry Homes, 2021 was one of the most challenging years in his 28-year career in homebuilding. But it was also one of his most successful.
Demand for new homes soared as supplies shriveled up for everything from lumber to labor. Prices for building materials skyrocketed. The company had to limit sales to deliver home to customers in a reasonable amount of time.
Through it all, Perry Homes managed to increase revenue by 30 percent — hitting about $1.7 billion last year and ranking No. 10 on the Chronicle 100’s list of the top private companies. Perry also hit No. 3 for the most home starts in Houston after breaking ground on about 1,700 new houses in 2021.
“It’s a credit to our employees who were so resilient,” Chachere said. “The employees just remained so focused and just had such a great attitude to work through those challenges.”
Perry Homes, which employs 1,305, including 769 in Houston, was able to ride rising home prices, which more than offset the constraints on sales. The median home price in Houston climbed 15 percent last year and is still rising, according to Houston Association of Realtors.
Perry, which to caters to so-called move-up buyers seeking larger, upscale properties, sold 1,629 homes last year in Houston at an average of $467,000. Those average prices are up by about 15 percent so far this year, to about $538,000.
Chachere expects revenues to grow about 20 percent to more than $2 billion in 2022 and home closings to rise by nearly 6 percent to 3,600 this year across its markets of Austin, DallasFort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.
Chachere took the helm of Perry Homes in March this year from former CEO Kathy Britton, the daughter of the company’s late founder, Bob Perry. Britton and Chachere work hand-inhand, setting a goal to increase closings by 40 percent over the next five years with roughly 5,000 homes annually. Chachere expects to grow in Texas and eventually expand to other states.
“We got enough on our plate for the next several years to continue to grow in our state,” Chachere said., “but we’re very ambitious.”