Right place at the right price.

• Position: RUNNER - UP - H and H Homes Inc

While other builders struggled in 2009, H&H Homes' sales grew faster than any other homebuilder in the United States. That, according to Builder magazine. Revenue topped $89 million, a 52% increase over 2008. You might attribute the sale of 469 houses last year to the company's seemingly recession-proof market surrounding Fort Bragg. But you'd be wrong, says Brad Wilson, CEO of Destination Homes in Layton, Utah: "I think they have one of the most compelling success stories in my industry, in the whole country." And it wasn't luck: "I think it was a culmination of experience, smarts and strategy," he says. "Real estate is location, location, location," concedes Ralph Huff, CEO of H&H, "and we are doing what we're doing because we're in Fayetteville." But consider that H&H's share of that market went from 8% in 2008 to 23% today.

Huff, 60, had tried his hand at textiles and banking after graduating from UNC Chapel Hill. In 1978, he discovered real estate, buying a company in 1990, then starting a construction arm in 1991, Wife Linda, H&H's president, joined the company in 1994. Over the decades, he noticed a pattern: "After the Carter years were over, interest rates went down, and the market took off. And after '91, when the recession was over, the market took off. So I knew that after 2000, there would be resurgence in construction. And that happened."

Huff praises the advice he got from the Builders 20 Club, aka the "Dirt Dogs," a peer group organized by the National Association of Builders. "My goal before joining the Builders 20 Club was to build 120 houses a year," he says. But members from cities including San Diego and Las Vegas urged him to aim for 300. He hired a consultant, mapped out a strategic plan and assembled a young team to help with marketing, operations, information technology and finances. H&H ended up building 285 houses in 2008. Problem was, people stopped buying.

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"We spent much of 2007 and 2008 getting rid of old inventory that was overpriced and too big for our market, too nice, too fancy," recalls Greg West, H&H chief of staff. Blame it on the public's short-lived...