Fleetwood Top Producer of Homes in U. S.

Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., Riverside, ranked first last year in the number of housing units built--34,980--in the annual survey of the nation’s 100 largest builders conducted by Automation in Housing & Manufactured Home Dealer magazine.

The 100 leading firms generated sales of $19,030,000,000 last year, up 13.6% from the $16,747,000,000 in 1985. Yet, their production fell 8.5%, to 423,464 units or 20.7% of the nation’s total housing starts last year, according to Don Carlson, editor of the Carpinteria-based trade publication.

Unlike some lists of the nation’s largest builders, the Automation in Housing survey includes only housing construction income, Carlson said.

The leader in terms of dollar volume last year was Pulte Home Corp., Bloomfield Hills (Detroit), Mich., which sold 9,283 site-built houses for $837 million. Fleetwood, which produces manufactured homes, ranked 10th in terms of dollar volume with sales of $486,518,000 last year.