Home Builders: AI Visibility Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Questions This Section Answers

• Which home builder leads AI recommendation coverage in October 2026, and by how much?
• Which brands gained the most coverage since the July 2026 baseline?

In October 2026, Lennar leads valid recommendation coverage at 57.8%, ahead of Toll Brothers at 55.7%, a gap of 2.1 percentage points. Since the July 2026 baseline, the largest coverage increase was NVR (Ryan Homes), rising from 18.7% to 26.5%, a gain of 7.8 percentage points. No brand recorded a significant coverage decline since baseline; four brands were classified as significant risers this month, with no significant decliners.

October 2026 follows a weaker September 2026 for most brands, ahead of the rebound captured in this report. Month over month, Lennar rose 14.7 percentage points, D.R. Horton rose 13.1 percentage points, and NVR (Ryan Homes) rose 10.3 percentage points. KB Home and Toll Brothers both extended two-month upward streaks: KB Home is up 6.3 percentage points from September 2026 to October 2026 (5.8 points since the July 2026 baseline), and Toll Brothers is up 11.2 percentage points from September 2026 to October 2026 (4.3 points since baseline).

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 533 qualified observations in October 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were represented in both months. In September 2026, the intermediate month, qualified observations rose to 550 before settling at 533 in October 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Home Builders

Research Scope and Qualification

Questions This Section Answers

• Why do brand percentages use qualified observations instead of the raw 800-prompt collection?
• How many observations qualified for the public benchmark in October 2026?

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. Link AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

Questions This Section Answers

• Which home builders have the highest presence and valid recommendation coverage?
• How do top-three and rank-one rates differ among the leading builders?

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned at all.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand receives a valid recommendation.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the top three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative mentions divided by total mentions.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Questions This Section Answers

• Which home builder posted the largest coverage gain since the July 2026 baseline?
• How much did Lennar's recommendation coverage rise between July and October 2026?

Largest Increase: NVR (Ryan Homes)

NVR (Ryan Homes) rose from 18.7% valid recommendation coverage in July 2026 to 26.5% in October 2026, an increase of 7.8 percentage points, the largest single-brand gain since baseline. The brand had declined in each of the two prior months, moving from 17.3% in August 2026 to 16.2% in September 2026 before rebounding. Presence rose from 32.3% to 38.1%.

Category Leader: Lennar

Lennar leads the category with 57.8% valid recommendation coverage in October 2026, up from 51.8% in July 2026, a gain of 6.0 percentage points. The brand's top-three rate rose from 36.7% to 48.0%, and rank-one rate moved from 7.5% to 8.4%. Presence remained largely stable, slipping from 90.6% to 88.6%. Lennar and D.R. Horton were the only brands with top-three rates above 40% in October 2026.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Questions This Section Answers

• Which home builder is most often the first recommendation, even when coverage is similar?
• What do top-three and rank-one rates reveal that coverage alone does not?

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. Top-three and rank-one rates reveal placement differences among leading brands.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. Lennar and D.R. Horton have similar top-three rates, but D.R. Horton is the first recommendation in 33.2% of observations versus 8.4% for Lennar and 0.8% for PulteGroup.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

Questions This Section Answers

• Which buyer-intent classes have public signal in this benchmark?
• What kinds of buyer questions does this data not yet measure?

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery only; pricing, value, and head-to-head comparison have no public signal in this data.

Historical Measurement Record

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, private or sponsored channels, or causality from a metric movement alone.

Top 10 Cited Domains

Questions This Section Answers

• Which domains are cited most often across AI responses about home builders?
• How concentrated are AI citations, and which home builder domain appears in the top 10?

Across all AI responses in this measurement period, 6,897 citations were observed across 1,151 unique domains.

Citations are concentrated in a small number of domains, with the top 10 accounting for roughly 45% of all citations observed. M/I Homes' own domain (mihomes.com) is the only tracked brand domain appearing in the top 10, cited 139 times. Industry-specific sources dominate the list, with builder trade publications (builderonline.com, probuilder.com) and home search platforms (newhomesource.com, zillow.com) appearing alongside general platforms like YouTube, Reddit, and Facebook.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Visibility Market Discovery Index tracks how brands appear in AI-generated responses across major AI and search surfaces. This industry-level benchmark provides a neutral, repeatable view of brand presence, recommendation coverage, placement, and sentiment.

• AI Visibility Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Visibility Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Visibility Authority Value

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