Habitat for Humanity Cracks Top 10 List of US Builders

How badly are home builders hurting? Here's a hint: Habitat for Humanity has cracked the top 10 list of US builders for the first time. The nonprofit, which relies largely on volunteers to build homes for low-income people, ranked 8th in the Builder magazine list, ahead of some of the biggest names in the business, reports the Wall Street Journal.

"We're a lot less tied to the market as a whole," says a Habitat official. "We've been able to keep chugging along at a pretty solid pace." Habitat closed on about 5,300 houses (new and rehabbed) last year. That's down 3%, but it's nothing compared to Ryland's 30% plunge in closings and Hovnanian's 50% drop. (More Habitat for Humanity stories.)