Arlington-based D.R. Horton has reigned as the nation’s top homebuilder for many years. But according to the Dallas Morning News, an upcoming merger will knock that company from its dominant position.

Florida-based Lennar Corp. is spending $5.7 billion in stock and cash to acquire the CalAtlantic Group of Virginia. The deal also provides for Lennar to assume CalAtlantic’s debt of $3.6 billion dollars.

The merger between Lennar and CalAtlantic will create the largest company in the homebuilding industry.

Both Lennar and CalAtlantic were among the top 10 companies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the past year. According to data from Metrostudy Inc. cited in the Dallas Morning News, Lennar sold 1,200 homes in DFW for the one-year period ending with the third quarter of 2017. CalAtlantic sold 722 DFW homes in the same time period.

The two companies had an even larger presence nationwide. Lennar sold 26,563 homes nationwide last year and CalAtlantic sold 14,229, according to the report.

The report projects the merged companies will have a combined income of $17 billion in annual revenue. That exceeds D.R. Horton’s revenue of $12.2 billion last year. 

The Lennar-CalAtlantic merged firm will control almost 240,000 homebuilding sites in 21 states. Those sites include 1,300 communities in 49 markets nationwide, where approximately half of the U.S. population lives, according to the company.

"This combination increases our scale in the markets that we already know and in the products we already offer to entry-level, move up and active adult customers," Lennar CEO Stuart Miller said in a statement. "As a result, the combined company will have a top 3 ranking in 24 of the top 30 markets in the country."

D.R. Horton recently completed a merger of its own when it teamed up with land developer Forestar.