BUILDER BOOM

After making millions selling his first homebuilding business, Tom Bradbury started again from scratch. Now his passion for affordable houses has made him a billionaire.

Surveying a row of three- to five-bedroom homes going up along the recently asphalted Addison Drive, Tom Bradbury spots a problem. Plunging his brown brogue leather shoes into the Georgia red clay, he makes a beeline for a construction crew manning an excavator, telling them exactly where they need to dig.

"Everything has to be done right the first time and on time," Bradbury says. "Like when a car comes off the assembly line, it has to be ready to go."