News
Main Street Homes' Growth Leads the Nation
Main Street Homes, Austin’s largest locally owned home building company, has been recognized by Builder Magazine for leading the nation the past year in increases in revenue, closings, and total sales.
The May-June issue of Builder Magazine, the largest publication in the building industry, reports Main Street leads the nation in percentage increase of revenue during the past year. The Company enjoyed an impressive 123 % increase in revenue, ranking number one nationally in addition to a 139% increase in closings, the number two ranking nationally. Main Street Homes also ranks as the nation’s 79th largest homebuilder, up from number 150 last year. These numbers are even more impressive in light of the fact the home building industry is slumping in various regions in the country.
Main Street Homes was founded in Austin in 1993 by Steve Bartholomew and David LeBoeuf who still serve as President and Chief Executive Officer, respectively. LeBoeuf has been building homes in the Austin area continuously since 1982. As President of Fidelity Savings in the mid-1980’s, Bartholomew developed a business relationship with LeBoeuf as his interim lender. The two became friends and started Main Street Homes to address the pent-up needs of the affordable home market in the Austin area. Main Street expanded to College Station in 2001 and San Antonio in 2004.
“The key to our company’s growth has been our continued success in Austin and our expansion into the San Antonio market. We have worked hard to hire great people in the construction area and that has been a key ingredient for success in this new market for Main Street. We have virtually doubled the size of our staff to accommodate the increase in home sales.”
Since it started building in San Antonio in 2004 Main Street has built in 10 neighborhoods and has seen revenue jump from $10,730,251 (94 closings) in 2005 to $51,395,771 (418 closings) in 2006. Sales and closings are holding steady in 2007 with revenue of $22,701,119 (177 closings) through May.
Desiring to have a presence all over central Texas, Main Street Homes has worked with a number of developers as well as purchased property from landowners that the Company developed itself.
An increase in sales in Austin during this same time period reflects the strong local job market and the Company’s continuing effort to build communities in areas that are near good schools and convenient to employment centers. From 2005 to 2006, Austin sales increased from $46,023,523 (374 closings) to $74,638,528 (575 closings).
The Company has prospered with the simple philosophy of building well-designed, energy-efficient homes that are affordable to buy and maintain. Main Street Homes are family-friendly and feature floor plans with large bedrooms and generous living spaces. Most homes have flex rooms that can be used as an extra bedroom, study or media room. Main Street products start in the $70’s for 1,000 square foot homes to the $150’s for homes in the 2,700 square foot range.
“Through the years, we have tried to be very design-oriented in regards to our homes. Buyers have not typically had a lot of attractive floor plans to choose from in this price range and we wanted to give families a home that is not ‘boxy’ or ‘plain vanilla.’ We often hear our customers and Realtors say that our homes are better looking and more thoughtfully designed than others they have looked at in this price range.”
Main Street has made the home-buying process as seamless as possible by having its mortgage company, insurance company, and decoration center all under one roof.
The Texas Association of Builders has honored Main Street Homes with the “Texas Star Award” for “Best Product, Under $100,000, statewide, for the past ten years consecutively.
Among other awards garnered for business excellence, Bartholomew and LeBoeuf were
named Austin’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002 by Ernst and Young.
Main Street is currently building in 11 neighborhoods in Austin, 10 in San Antonio and one neighborhood in College Station, thus sustaining its impressive growth.
