Buyers here a bit less happy in '05

By Joseph Barrios

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

How they ranked

● New-home builder customer-satisfaction study

Builder 2005 2004 2003

Pulte 135 138 142

Lennar 122 129

Del Webb 119

A.F. Sterling 115 121

Pepper-Viner Co. 115 113

US Home 114 119 121

Tucson average 113 118 114

Meritage 111 113 115*

Robson Communities 111 121

KB Home 104 114 104

D.R. Horton 102 112 118

Richmond American 98 115 112

NOTES: To be included in each year's rankings, each builder must sell at least 150 homes that year.

*In 2004, Meritage was known as Monterey Homes.

Source: J.D. Power and Associates

A survey of people who bought new homes during the 2005 boom shows the overall level of satisfaction among new-home buyers in the Tucson market is down, according to a J.D. Power and Associates survey of 34 housing markets.

Tucson's overall satisfaction index score dropped to 113 from 118 a year ago, according to the new-home builder customer-satisfaction study.

A buyer encountered an average of 14 problems with a new home, a 7 percent increase from a year before, according to the study.

The average customer-satisfaction index score here is 113, a point ahead of the average among 34 markets nationwide.

The top three local builders were Pulte Homes, with the highest index score of 135; Lennar Homes, with a score of 122; and Del Webb, a Pulte brand, with a score of 119.

The study was based on responses from 1,028 respondents who bought new homes in the Tucson area last year. Buyers were asked about their level of satisfaction based on several characteristics, including the builder's warranty and customer service, home readiness, sales staff, workmanship and price.

So if so many people were buying homes in 2005, a record year in the residential market, why weren't they as happy as in years past?

Although the study doesn't reveal exactly why, it gleaned from responses that buyers were frustrated about waiting times, said Paula Sonkin, executive director of the real estate industries practice at J.D. Power and Associates.

"There are no magic bullets to this," Sonkin said. But "no builder ranks highest or very high without delivering a large percentage of on-time, complete homes," she said.

While many markets were busy during 2005, not all of them reported drops in overall satisfaction.

"It's even harder than ever to deliver an on-time, complete home," Sonkin said. "Some markets are up, and some markets are down. It just really varies, and a lot of it is driven by the largest builders in the market and what they're doing to improve."

This is the fourth year in a row that Pulte has ranked at the top of the survey. Tucson division President Shawn Chlarson attributed the ranking to the "consistent process that we stick with regardless of market conditions," including the company's structure in which customer relations is a department separate from construction or sales teams.

The bottom three builders in the study were KB Home, with a score of 104; D.R. Horton, at 102; and Richmond American Homes, with 98.

Among the builders included in both the 2005 and 2006 surveys, only Pepper-Viner Co.'s score improved. The company is upfront about waiting times and tries to update a buyer once a week with progress reports about the home, Executive Vice President Mike Whyde said.