New home buyers often prefer small builders.

J.D. Power and Associates' recently released "2000 New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study" found that most new home buyers equate quality workmanship and materials and customer service with satisfaction and they often get it from smaller builders.

"Workmanship and material quality problems not only cost builders valuable time and resources, they also don’t go unnoticed by home buyers," said Paula Sonkin, director of the firm’s new-home builder practice area.

"A particular focus on improving these quality problems, coupled with a responsive customer service department, will significantly enhance a homeowner's overall satisfaction with their builder."

The study was comprised of responses from approximately 25,500 new home buyers in six major markets. New-home builders included in the survey closed approximately 250 homes or more in each market during 1999.

"What was really interesting is that we found builders ranking highest in the survey are both smaller local builders and larger, more national builders in multiple markets, Sonkin said in Webcast comments.

New-home owners across six major U.S. markets report that quality of workmanship and materials and the effectiveness of customer service representatives were overriding factors that comprise half of their overall customer satisfaction, the survey said.

"We find that home builders must truly delight home buyers to obtain committed loyalty in terms of recommending them to others or to buy their next home from the same builder," Sonkin said.

Here's how the builders fared in each region.

Chicago -- Pulte Home Corporation ranked highest in customer satisfaction and led in half of the factors that comprise overall satisfaction, including quality of workmanship and materials, sales staff, physical design elements and location. Lakewood Homes ranked second, followed by Del Webb Corporation.

Dallas-Ft. Worth -- David Weekley Homes ranked highest in customer satisfaction and had top scores for quality of workmanship and materials, customer service representatives, sales staff, physical design elements and locations. Ranking second was Huntington Homes, followed by Darling Homes.

Houston -- Morrison Homes was at the top of the heap in customer satisfaction, outscoring the competition in quality of workmanship and materials, customer service representatives, physical design elements and sales staff. Weekley and Trendmaker Homes tied for second.

Las Vegas -- Pulte ranked highest in customer satisfaction with top scores in seven of the eight factors that comprise overall customer satisfaction. Tied for second overall were Coventry Homes and Del Webb.

Phoenix -- Blandford Homes ranked highest here and among all new-home builders in the survey. Del Webb ranked second, followed by Shea Homes.

Washington, D.C. -- NV Homes, a home building unit of NVR, Inc., ranked highest in customer satisfaction among new-home builders in the nation's capital. Ryan Homes, another home building unit of NVR, Inc., ranked second, followed by Miller & Smith.

"Not surprisingly, new homeowners don't want to take time out of their busy schedules again and again for the same problems," Sonkin said. "They have to live with these problems every day, and this clearly impacts their degree of satisfaction."