A one-time receptionist for Lennar, Joy Broddle oversees the No. 1 homebuilder in Las Vegas as division president.
Broddle graduated from Florida State with a degree in marketing, and when her dad said it was time to get a job rather than continue to live at home, she took a position as a receptionist with the corporate office in Miami in 2002 to draw a paycheck and figure out what she wanted to do in life.
“I wasn’t even thinking it would be a career, but I fell in love with Lennar, the people and culture,” Broddle said. “Twenty years is such a long time, but it’s a great place to work. We’re such a collaborative company and forward thinking, and I love that and all of the aspects of Lennar to experiment, think and try new things and fail and try again and try again. It’s a great alignment with my personality and others that have been here a long time.”
After working as a receptionist, Broddle became a correspondent for the company called the Lennar News Network interviewing homeowners and detailing how Lennar builds homes across the country given the local needs. She posted videos and wrote stories on the company’s internal website.
“It was a fun time to write stories and learn about people operating in different environments,” Broddle said.
Broddle did that for two years before she moved up the chain within the company starting in May 2005 as a land acquisition coordinator in Las Vegas. From there, she was an internet new home consultant in 2007, sales manager in 2011, director of sales in 2012, and vice president of sales and marketing in 2014. She became division president in June 2015.
“At the time when I worked in sales in Las Vegas, the market was really bad, and homebuilders weren’t buying land,” Broddle said. “Lennar was exploring selling homes online, and at the time builders didn’t post anything. They grabbed a few people across the country to pilot this internet sales person who updated the website and plugged in a phone and answered customers’ inquiries, and I was the person who picked up one of the first phone calls in Vegas from a digital sales program. That’s how I started in sales, and luckily I got to continue to grow and ended up in management after that.”
Lennar has been the leader in Las Vegas home sales under Broddle’s tenure as division president. She said she’s proud that Las Vegas families chose the builder that had 35 communities across the valley at the end of 2024.
“We have anything anybody can ask for — condos, homes, townhomes — and all the range in between up to estate size with big backyards,” Broddle said.
“What’s great is our plan design differentiates Lennar from everyone else,” Broddle said. “We design some interesting floor plans. Our NextGen design lends itself to multigenerational living, and over the last couple of years we’ve incorporated RV garages into the homes on the larger side of the spectrum. That was something buyers were telling us they wanted.
“We did a lot of research of what people were buying, and baby boomers had RVs and nowhere to park them. We experimented in our active-adult community, and it was a big hit. We expanded that to now we build RV garages all over the valley. You don’t have to get a home with a big sideyard. The home incorporates the RV garage within the home structure itself. It’s a great value, especially if you have a boat.”
In Las Vegas, Lennar starts with products in the high $300,000s and goes up to more than $1 million. Broddle credits that variety of options and building all over the valley from Lake Las Vegas to the northwest for propelling it to the top spot in the annual sales rankings.
“We offer a little something from everyone, and if they see something that they like but maybe in an area they don’t necessarily love, we can find a home in another area,” Broddle said. “That’s the reason we’ve been able to maintain our No. 1 spot. It’s not just about being No. 1. We want to make sure we have a great reputation and that we build a really beautiful home with quality and offer great value.”
Lennar has brought its RV garage design 120 miles from Las Vegas to St. George, Utah, where at the end of 2024 it unveiled its expansion into Southern Utah. It also included its NextGen suites.
“Expanding into Southern Utah is a natural progression for Lennar, and we’re excited to meet the increasing demand for housing in the area,” Broddle said. “With its close proximity to Las Vegas, we think it makes a lot of sense to bring our highly desired product to St. George. I imagine there will be people commuting.”
Lennar’s first community in St. George, called La Spazio, offers 98 single-story and two-story homes within the master-planned community of Divario, located southwest of the Sunbrook Golf Course. Prices start in the $600,000s.
“St. George lends itself to the outdoor living environment, and with all of the things people travel to see there, we think that will be a big draw and separate us out from other builders operating there now,” Broddle said. “We’re excited about growing up there.”
In 2025, Lennar is opening a luxury community in the northwest portion of Summerlin off Far Hills Drive and the 215 Beltway.
Broddle describes the state of the housing market for the builder industry as seeing strong and consistent demand.
She talked about Las Vegas being a land-constrained market amid continued migration to the valley that pumps up that demand because the valley is a great place to live and work. The lack of land is a concern for Lennar and builders along with affordability, she said.
“We want to think about the next opportunity to provide homes in Las Vegas, and finding the right opportunity is something we’re constantly thinking about,” Broddle said.
When it comes to affordability, Broddle said, for many years Lennar didn’t build condos or townhomes, but over the past couple of years as prices appreciated, it moved in that direction to further serve the first-time homebuyers.
“Because everything is included, they can get everything they want in a home without having to sacrifice something they need,” Broddle said. “We can pass on that value of our purchasing program on homeowners and find a lot of success with that strategy.”
Lennar CEO Stuart Miller has talked about the importance of lowering the elevated interest rates on the housing sector to expand homeownership.
“Overall, the economic environment remains very constructive for homebuilders,” Miller said. “Demand remains very strong, and the migration to lower interest rates will further activate that demand. Lower interest rates will enhance affordability, which will enable many more families to access and attain homeownership at the entry level, while growing families will be able to unlock value from existing homes, enabling them to move up to more bedrooms and more living space. More listings for existing homes will provide supply of entry-level homes while driving more demand for move up products.”
