Lennar is the Valley's biggest home builder; Bank of Sierra tops Visalia Bank of America
Publicly-traded Lennar Homes is the busiest single-family home builder in the Central Valley’s four-county region this year, according to figures from "Construction Monitor." So far in 2023 Lennar Homes has permitted 804 new homes compared to next in line Wilson Homes with 395. Granville and Woodside Homes are third and fourth in the ranking.
In Tulare County, Lennar, D.R. Horton, Woodside and San Joaquin Valley Homes are in a close competition for the most homes under construction to date-in the mid 80s. In Kings County Lennar has permitted 102 new homes - more than double the number from San Joaquin Valley Homes with 41.
The pace of new home construction is dramatically down in Tulare County as high interest rates have slowed real estate activity both in existing homes and new home construction. In the existing home category, Tulare County was on pace to close 350 homes a month in 2022, now down to around 250. Visalia saw just 97 existing homes sold in September 2023, about half the 176 single-family homes sold since September 2020.
In 2022, Tulare County saw permits for 1,069 new homes by this date. In 2023, the pace is down to 698 units over the a 10-month span.The slowdown has hit Visalia-based San Joaquin Valley Homes who reported 272 new homes permitted in this period in 2022 compared just 87 so far this year.
In the four-county region, Florida-based Lennar was No. 1 last year as well. As of 2023, Lennar is the second-largest home construction company in the United States based on the number of homes sold- just behind D.R. Horton.
Lennar has three active subdivisions in Visalia.
Bank of Sierra tops Bank of America as top Visalia bank
The federal banking regulator FDIC has published the Visalia-metro area Market-Share report effective June 30, 2023 showing long time leader Bank of America has lost bragging rights as top local bank to Tulare County-based Bank of Sierra. The report for 2023 says Bank of Sierra now enjoys a 21.59% market share based on deposits, compared to 18.72 % for Bank of America. In 2022 Bank of America was higher at 19.16% compared to Bank of Sierra’s 18.78%.
Bank Sierra does have the advantage of 13 branches in the metro area compared to 6 for B of A. Wells Fargo is third in line in both in 2022 and 2023.
Bank of America deposits in the market fell from $1.4 billion in 2022 to about $1.3 billion in 2023. Meanwhile, deposits at Bank of Sierra climbed from $1.37 billion in 2022 to almost $1.5 billion, according to the banking report.
Bank of America used to be the dominant player in the market with nearly 30% market share.
Bank of Sierra, launched in Porterville in 1977, says it has grown to become the largest independent bank headquartered in California’s southern San Joaquin Valley, with over $3 billion in assets, 500 employees, and 35 full-service branches.
Ironically, the Bank of Sierra headquarters in Downtown Visalia was once the headquarters for Bank of America, although it was built for the Bank of Italy a 100 years ago, 100 years ago.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: This is Valley's biggest home builder; Bank of Sierra tops BofA
