Single-Family Residential Jobs

Single Family Housing refers to for-sale individual residential housing units built for one family to own and occupy. Single family homes are either attached or detached. Detached homes are built on their own lots and do not share any common walls with other units. Attached homes, such as townhomes, share either one or both side walls and consist of multiple units in a single contiguous structure on one level. Multi-level ownership units such as condominiums are not usually included in the single family housing sector, the major distinction being that condominium owners do not own the land under their unit while Single Family owners do. Homes can be custom built to the exact specification of an owner, but more often today they are manufactured by large national home builders who offer several models to chose from but allow few changes to the plans. Home building starts with the land. Some home builders buy raw land, get the necessary approvals to build, and prepare the lots by grading the site, bringing utilities, and paving roads. Then the individual lots are sold to home owners who chose which model home they want built. Other times, land developers do the leg work buying raw land and preparing the lots. These lots are then sold in bulk to home builders who in turn sell individual lots to home buyers. This process eliminates entitlement risk for the home builder.

Information on this page provided courtesy of Cornell University Program in Real Estate
Information Provided by Cornell University

Professional Reading and Resources

  • "Journal of Housing Economics"
  • "Journal of Housing and Community Development"
  • "NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index"
  • "S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index"
  • "HousingEconomics.com"
  • "Builder magazine"
  • "CustomBuilder magazine"
  • "Professiona Builder magazine"

Industry Segments

  • Single Family:
    Duplexes, Townhomes
  • Detached:
    Individual lots

Looking to the Future

Single Family Housing is perhaps the most important real estate sector in terms of the extent of ownership across the United States. Since 1981, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, homeownership rates have hovered between 65 and 70%. It was not until 2004 that ownership rates reached 69%. At first this appeared to be a good sign that more Americans were achieving the dream of home ownership, but eventually this high rate proved unsustainable. It is now clear that unhealthy lending practices pushed the ownership rate above its long run average. Even so, with total US households at just over 110 million, and 67% ownership equaling 74 million households, it is evident that home ownership is a barometer for the overall health of the economy and any fluctuation in value can be either devastating or a huge wealth creation mechanism as seen in the early to middle 2000’s. As in all real estate, housing markets are cyclical. The long term future of home building will be driven by job and population growth. Short term, builders as well as home owners looking to sell are waiting for financial markets to cool off and lenders to begin lending again. Until this happens, home prices will continue to adjust downward and builders will have unsold inventory.

Top Single-Family Residential Companies

  • D.R. Horton
    23,915
  • Pulte Homes
    21,022
  • Centex Corp.
    18,241
  • Lennar Corp.
    15,735
  • KB Home
    12,438

Top Markets

2008 Building Permits

Houston, TX42,697
Austin, TX14,250
Fort Worth, TX10,388
San Antonio, TX10,261
Dallas, TX26,145
Washington, DC 11,693
Raleigh, NC11,386
Seattle, WA15,389
Indianapolis, IN7,004
Fayetteville, AR2,989

"To compile these lists, we analyzed the top 75 housing markets in the country. We ranked them based on population trends and job growth, perennial drivers of housing demand. We also examined what’s happened with home prices; many of the healthiest markets have managed to hold the line on home values. And finally, we considered the rate building permits, which may be the single best ongoing indicator of builder confidence in a market. We combined all these metrics to produce a score for each market." – BuilderOnlline.com

* Source: www.builderonline.com "The Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009" February 17th, 2009

Sector Quick Facts

From the SelectLeaders/Cornell Job Barometer, Fall 2008



Job Title / Description     Hide Description Company Location Posted
Vice President, Acquisitions/Asset Management
Brookfield Real Estate Opportunity Fund ("BREOF") invests and manages 2 real estate opportunity funds sponsored by Brookfield Asset Management ("BAM") with a mandate to invest in opportunistic or distressed real estate situations targeted high "teens" levered returns...


Brookfield Asset Management LLC NY-New York 2/5/10
Business Unit Leader - Land Development
Position Description Business Unit Leader – Land Development (Architecture/Urban Design)  CSRS Inc., is seeking a talented and innovative architect/urban designer for a newly created leadership position in our Baton Rouge, Louisiana office.  The Business Unit Leader for ...


CSRS, Inc., Architects & Engineers LA-Baton Rouge 2/4/10
Asset Management Associate
Description A real estate investment firm with an office in NYC is looking for an asset management associate with experience in working out distressed residential and commercial loans.  The firm is growing quickly, and has an entrepreneurial culture that provides excellent opportunities for ...


Confidential NY 2/2/10
Community Management Director
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR – REGIONAL PROPERTY MANAGER Fort Sill, OK Picerne Military Housing, a leader in the real estate development, construction and property management industry, is committed to providing America’s military families with the quality homes and neighborhood...


Picerne Military Housing OK-Fort Sill 2/1/10
Condominium Sales Manager
Seeking an experienced, enthusiastic, licensed agent to manage the sales of a new condominium in downtown D.C.Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to, touring, tracking, and following up with all prospects, developing marketing strategies, monitoring the competition, writing and neg...


REPSolutions VA-Alexandria 2/1/10
Facilities Manager
REAL ESTATE FACILITIES MANAGER  Real Estate & Investment company with headquarters in Denver, Colorado, is seeking a hands-on, exceptional, and highly motivated Facilities Manager for real estate based in California and Hawaii.The Facilities Manager will have a proven track record in a P...


Confidential CO 2/1/10
Intern to Partner – Manhattan (RE License required)
Massey Knakal – NYC’s Top Building Sales Firm  New York City’s #1 Investment Real Estate Brokerage firm seeks a College student (Junior or Senior) to act as the Intern to one of the firm's Partners and Top Producers, Shimon Shkury.  Operating out of our Manhattan o...


Massey Knakal Realty Services NY-New York 2/1/10
Research Associate - 40k base +incentives
CoStar Group is currently seeking enthusiastic, customer-focused Research Associates at our state of the art White Marsh, MD office. As a Research Associate, you are the foundation of CoStar's business. The overall goal of the Research Associate is to effectively maintain a por...


CoStar Group MD-Columbia 1/25/10
Chief Financial Officer
We have been retained by a private multi-family housing real estate development firm to find a senior financial leader - specifically, a Chief Financial Officer (CFO).   The client is a local California company with significant experience in residential real estate development, particul...


RHI Executive Search CA-Southern California 1/22/10
Asset Manager/Owner's Representative (Miami Based)
Well established NYC based real estate firm with an extensive record of success in the development and acquisition of office, residential, retail and hotel properties has an immediate need for an Asset Manager/Owner’s Representative based in Miami, FL.  The successful candidate must ha...


Confidential FL 1/21/10

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