Arlington, Texas-based homebuilding giant D.R. Horton Inc. is boosting its presence in Arkansas.
D.R. Horton will acquire Fayetteville-based Riggins Custom Homes, a large homebuilder in Northwest Arkansas, D.R. Horton said Thursday.
The company expects to pay about $107 million in cash and plans to combine Riggins’ operations with its existing business in Northwest Arkansas. The deal will include about 3,000 lots, 170 homes in inventory and 173 homes in Riggins’ sales order backlog.
“We are excited for the Riggins team to join the D.R. Horton family,” Donald Horton, chairman of D.R. Horton, said in a statement. “Their quality building operations and local market expertise make Riggins an excellent extension as we grow our local start-up market position in Northwest Arkansas.”
In the 12 months up to Nov. 30, Riggins closed 153 homes totaling $48 million in revenue, according to D.R. Horton. They had an average size of about 1,925 square feet and an average sale price of just over $313,600.
Founded in 1992, Riggins is a family-owned business that builds more than 300 homes each year, according to its website.
“We have truly enjoyed serving our clients and providing quality homes in Northwest Arkansas for the last 30 years,” Riggins’ Darin and Kevin Riggins said in a statement. “Riggins Custom Homes wouldn’t be where it is today without the help of our amazing employees, vendors and subcontractors. We are excited and look forward to seeing the great value D.R. Horton will bring to the families of Northwest Arkansas.”
D.R. Horton is the nation’s largest homebuilder by volume. It operates in 106 markets in 33 states and sold 81,469 homes from June 2021 to 2022. It owned 131,000 lots as of September.
The company saw housing demand begin to moderate in June due to the rapid rise in mortgage rates on top of high inflation and economic uncertainty that made buyers pause or walk away from their homebuying decisions.
But despite market challenges and a decline in sales orders this year, the company closed on the most home sales in 2022 than any other year in its history. Its profits were up 22% year over year to $1.6 billion in the last quarter on $9.6 billion in revenue.
