The Phoenix area’s biggest homebuilders kept their foot on the gas in 2025, even as the broader housing market tapped the brakes. A new ranking from Phoenix Business Journal shows the 40 largest builders pulled nearly 17,000 single-family permits across Maricopa and Pinal counties. That is a hefty slice of all the homes greenlit in a year when overall permitting cooled but remained heavily dominated by the biggest players.
How the list was compiled
The Journal built its ranking using permit counts from RL Brown Reports along with information from builder websites. The online version of the list goes deeper than the print edition by adding 20 more residential builders to the lineup. To make the cut, each company needed to pull at least 20 permits in 2025, and any ties were broken simply by listing firms alphabetically. That approach offers a clean snapshot of which companies were actively putting shovels in the ground last year.
Permits fell across the metro in 2025
The dominance of a relatively small group of builders comes against a backdrop of shrinking permit volume. Single-family permits across the Phoenix metro fell about 20% year over year, from roughly 27,156 in 2024 to 21,815 in 2025, according to Global Water Resources' year-end SEC filing. That pullback helps explain why so much of the remaining action ended up concentrated among the region’s largest firms.
Incentives, inventory and land plays
To keep sales moving through 2024 and 2025, many builders leaned on rate buydowns, design-center credits and a grab bag of other incentives. Several companies have begun dialing those offers back this spring as demand softened, according to industry sources and local executives who spoke with Phoenix Metro Home Search. Meanwhile, Jim Daniel and RL Brown Reports have tracked a steady stream of lot and land deals that help large builders keep their pipelines full, even as some smaller operators hit pause.
Policy fights are reshaping where builders can grow
Regulatory battles and long-running questions about water supply are also steering where growth can and cannot go. Valley builders sued the Arizona Department of Water Resources over changes to the 100-year assured water supply pathway, a clash detailed in coverage of their move to sue state water cops over growth squeeze. At the same time, Arizona lawmakers approved HB 2928 in 2025, which standardizes accessory-dwelling-unit rules for counties, according to LegiScan. Together, those changes will shape which subdivisions qualify for lot sales and long-term buildout in the years ahead.
What to watch next
The expanded Phoenix-area builder list from Phoenix Business Journal offers a clear scoreboard of 2025’s permit winners and laggards, with Research Director Dale Brown listed as the project contact. The next real tells will be the 2026 permit totals, the pace of ongoing lot and land sales, and how builders adjust their strategies in response to water rules, zoning decisions and interest-rate moves.
