Rival developer buying homebuilder with Las Vegas operations

A Southern California homebuilder with operations in Las Vegas is being bought by a rival developer, creating one of the largest builders in the country.

Taylor Morrison Home Corp. is acquiring William Lyon Homes in a $2.4 billion deal, according to an announcement Wednesday.

The deal is expected to close in the first or second quarter next year, the release said, adding it would create the nation’s fifth-largest homebuilder as measured by the last 12 months of closings.

William Lyon, based in Newport Beach, California, didn’t crack the top 10 of Southern Nevada’s best-selling builders last year, and the market here is on the lower end of its money-makers.

But the tie-up is the latest involving a builder in Las Vegas, whose home construction market is dominated by out-of-state, publicly traded developers.

Taylor Morrison, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, operates in nine states and booked more than $3.2 billion in net revenue from home closings this year through September, according to a securities filing.

William Lyon’s projects in Southern Nevada include the Affinity complex near Red Rock Resort and the Mountain Falls golf course community in Pahrump. It operates in seven states and generated nearly $1.4 billion in operating revenue this year through September, according to a securities filing.

Among that, $111.8 million came from Nevada, second-lowest among the states where it operates.

According to a previous report by Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research, William Lyon didn’t make the top 10 last year for new-home closings in Southern Nevada.

In other buyouts involving developers with Las Vegas operations, Japanese builder Sekisui House acquired Woodside Homes in 2017, and later that year Lennar Corp. reached a deal to acquire CalAtlantic Group, which itself was formed through a 2015 merger.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.