Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of comprehensive analyses leading up to the HousingWire Homebuilder Summit, scheduled for Oct. 19–21 in Dallas. Each installment explores homebuilding leaders, private companies, and operating models finding ways to navigate a punishing market that continues to test margins, affordability, capital discipline, and operational execution. The series examines the playbooks, executive decisions, and leadership approaches that make a homebuilding business resilient for the road ahead.
Main Facts
In the topsy-turvy, gravity-bending landscape of the American housing market, private homebuilders are facing an unprecedented matrix of challenges. New-home demand exists, but much of it remains on indefinite hold. High interest rates have pushed homebuyer affordability to punishing thresholds, while financial incentives take a sledgehammer to gross margins. Furthermore, rising finished inventory, carrying costs, and land exposure are forcing builders of all sizes to make agonizing choices regarding sales pace, pricing strategies, and capital allocation.
Yet, amidst this macro-environmental uncertainty, startups like National Home Corp. (NHC) are proving that rigorous operational discipline can unlock a path forward. Co-founded in October 2021 by industry veterans Wade Jurney, Michael Bergman, and Gregg Erickson, NHC is pacing to close more than 800 homes this year, a significant rebound from 550 closings in 2025.
Under the leadership of its youngish, first-year CEO, Michael Bergman, the company is preparing to exit the year with approximately 1,200 homes under construction. This aggressive production pipeline aims to establish active subdivisions capable of yielding 1,500 to 1,800 closings by 2027, provided macroeconomic conditions and internal operational capacity cooperate. Rather than relying on a rising housing-cycle tailwind, NHC is stress-testing a time-tested playbook against market languor, proving that a hyper-focused entry-level strategy can thrive when execution is absolute.
Chronology of a Startup: From Inception to Scale
To understand National Home Corp.’s current trajectory, one must examine its five-year timeline, which reads like a masterclass in calculated risk-taking and operational pivots.
The Foundation (2021–2022)
Launched in October 2021, NHC was built on the blueprint of Wade Jurney Homes—a company Jurney successfully scaled through the Global Financial Crisis before selling to Century Communities. In its first full operating year (2022), NHC deliberately kept a low profile, closing 25 homes to establish its supply chain and construction cadence.
Rapid Acceleration and Pandemic Backwash (2023–2024)
The company quickly gained traction as market demand surged and corrected. Closings jumped dramatically to 304 homes in 2023, followed by an impressive leap to 747 closings in 2024.
The Operational Pivot (2025)
As broader market conditions deteriorated and affordability constraints caught up with buyers in 2025, NHC went backward, seeing closings dip to 550. Recognizing the need for a hands-on leadership transition, Wade Jurney shifted to executive chairman in late 2025, while Michael Bergman stepped up as president and CEO at the beginning of 2026. Bergman immediately plunged into a phase he characterizes as "stability and immersion."
The 2026 Rebound and Beyond
By the end of the first quarter of 2026, NHC had started 23 more homes than planned, generated 100 net sales above target, and finished slightly ahead of its closing projections. The momentum carried into Q2, adding another 107 starts above plan. Today, Bergman is intensely focused on scaling the business toward a projected 800 closings this year and positioning the company for a massive leap to 1,500-plus closings in 2027.
Supporting Data and Financial Metrics
National Home Corp.’s success is not built on speculative land banking or complex architectural experimentation. Instead, it relies on a strict mathematical and logistical formula.
- Production Growth: NHC closed 25 homes (2022), 304 homes (2023), 747 homes (2024), 550 homes (2025), and is tracking past 800 homes for 2026.
- Pipeline Targets: The company aims to exit 2026 with roughly 1,200 homes actively under construction, supporting a target of 1,500 to 1,800 closings by 2027.
- Gross Margins: Despite industry-wide margin compression driven by rate buydowns and incentives, NHC generated an approximate 18% gross margin in July 2026 while meeting its business-plan overhead and pretax net margin targets.
- Monthly Velocity: In July alone, the company closed 70 homes right on plan and initiated 93 starts against a plan of 86, demonstrating consistent inventory turns.
The Playbook: Backward Engineering Affordability
At the heart of NHC’s operating model is a philosophy that runs counter to much of conventional modern homebuilding: figuring out what a working household can afford to pay for a new home, and building a durable business backward from that exact price point.
Core Tenets of the NHC Playbook
- Finished Lots Over Land Speculation: NHC primarily acquires finished lots, minimizing long-term capital exposure and carrying costs.
- Standardized Architecture: The company utilizes repetitive floor plans, repeatedly purchasing identical batches of concrete, windows, doors, and roofing materials.
- 100% Spec Construction: Homes are built as pure spec units. Buyers do not navigate long menus of expensive, error-prone upgrades or custom options. Exterior colors and elevations vary to satisfy community guidelines, but the underlying production system remains uniform.
- Pace Over Margin (With Caveats): Aligning with the velocity strategies utilized by mega-builders like Lennar, NHC prioritizes inventory turns. However, Bergman stresses that accepting a lower margin only works if upstream purchasing and cost controls are rigidly enforced.
"If you are disciplined in your purchasing and your cost and your business model that we have, you can still harvest an acceptable margin, a business plan margin," Bergman noted in an interview.
Official Responses and Leadership Perspectives
The cultural heartbeat of National Home Corp. is deeply tied to the entrepreneurial grit of its leadership team. Speaking from the road three or four days a week, CEO Michael Bergman reflects the values instilled in him by the family businesses he grew up around in North Carolina.
"If the trash needs taking out, you take it out. If you’re the last one there, you turn off the lights," Bergman said, describing his immersive management style. Since taking the helm, he has embedded himself in every nook and cranny of the business—land acquisition, accounting, finance, purchasing, construction, sales, and marketing.
COO John Hayes works hand-in-hand with Bergman, maintaining strict oversight of purchasing and field operations to ensure costs remain aligned with a challenging macroeconomic backdrop.
Rather than chasing technological fads, NHC’s leadership maintains a pragmatic approach to enterprise software and artificial intelligence. While the company has audited its financials, implemented closed-loop purchase-order systems, adopted Constellation HomeBuilder Systems software, and begun leveraging Microsoft Power BI for reporting, Bergman maintains a strict philosophy: "Right now, it’s not broke. Don’t fix it."
The priority remains focused on processing what enters the front end of the production machine before deploying disruptive technologies. "We want to be a household name for the entry-level product across the country," Bergman emphasized. "I’m obsessed with this. I’m in it. I’m immersed in it."
Implications for the Broader Housing Market
The trajectory of National Home Corp. carries profound implications for the American housing ecosystem, which continues to grapple with a chronic undersupply of entry-level neighborhoods.
1. The Death of Complex Customization at Entry-Level Price Points
NHC’s model suggests that affordability cannot be achieved through superficial value-engineering alone. It requires structural simplification. By stripping out SKU complexity, reducing cycle times, and locking in repetitive trade scopes, builders can deliver homes that a working household can qualify to purchase without relying entirely on volatile rate buydowns.
2. The Power of "Rowing the Boat"
In an era where scaling a business often leads to bloated executive layers, NHC’s preference for hands-on operators—"people who row the boat" rather than sit on the sidelines—serves as a blueprint for efficient startup management. By stress-testing their operational capacity during a difficult market cycle, private builders are hardening their infrastructure for the inevitable market tailwinds to come.
3. A Template for Private Builders
While NHC’s specific playbook—focused on entry-level spec building and finished-lot strategies—cannot be copy-pasted across every geographic market or luxury price point, the underlying principle is universally applicable. True resilience stems from knowing precisely who you are as a company, maintaining relentless cost discipline, and keeping the customer at the absolute center of the business equation.
As the industry prepares for the HousingWire Homebuilder Summit in Dallas, operators like Michael Bergman and Wade Jurney remind the housing community that despite macroeconomic headwinds, there will always be a thriving market for those who know how to solve hard problems, honor the fundamentals, and embrace the grit required to keep building forward.
