Pulte Homes wins the thumbs up from J.D. Power and Associates® for the second year in a row.

For the second year in a row, Pulte Homes’ operations received the highest rankings for customer satisfaction in the Chicago market, according to results announced this past week for the 2008 J.D. Power and Associates ® New Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study (SM). 

In addition to a first-place tie in customer satisfaction, Pulte Homes ranked highest for new home quality in the Chicago market.

Pulte brands, which include Pulte Homes, Del Webb and DiVosta, were surveyed in 26 of the 33 markets covered in the 2008 study. Pulte Homes operations garnered 11 top rankings in customer satisfaction, and were ranked No. 2 in six markets and No. 3 in threemarkets. 

“We’re very pleased to see Pulte Homes at the top of the rankings in both customer satisfaction and quality,” said Brian Brunhofer, president of Pulte Homes’ Illinois division. “Delivering the highest-quality home and continuing to provide an exceptional homebuying and ownership experience go hand in hand, and we’re grateful that our homeowners continue to recognize our team’s dedication to this goal.”

Pulte Homes maintains a comprehensive system for communicating with customers to ensure their questions are answered and their needs are being met throughout the entire sales, home completion and delivery process. 

The New Home Quality Study evaluates builders on a 1,000-point index score based on eight categories of problem types — home exterior, kitchen, bathroom, windows and doors, electrical and appliances, flooring and stairs, drywall, and interior paint. The index is adjusted to account for problem volume (number of problems), problem severity (impact to customer), and home size.  

For its 2008 New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study, J.D. Power and Associates focused on individuals that purchased a new single family detached or attached home during 2007. Qualifying builders in each market had to have a minimum of 125 home closings in the prior year and a minimum of 50 returned questionnaires.