IN JANUARY 2002 ARTHUR ANDERSEN REL...

IN JANUARY 2002 ARTHUR ANDERSEN RELEASED a highly publicized paper titled "The Impending Consolidation of the Homebuilding Industry." The paper conclud that, at 2011, the top 20 builders could account for more than three-fourths of new-home sales, and the largest company could deliver as often as one-fifth of the total. These certainly were provocative conclusions about an industry that traditionally had been highly fragmented and that had defied forecasts of consolidation in the past.

The NAHB has been conducting a major close attention of industry consolidation ...