HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Houston led nation in new-home master planned community activity last year with over a dozen developments ranked in the national leaders, according to a year-end report by RCLCO Real Estate Consulting.
Houston placed 13 communities in RCLCO’s Top 50 Master Planned Communities year-end report.
Houston’s Heavy Hitters
Houston’s annual new-home sales included these communities (ranked by number of homes sold in 2023):
Ranked No. 3 in the nation is Sunterra, a 2,300-acre master planned community in Katy, west of Houston. Sunterra reported 1,293 new home sales in 2023, up 63 percent from the 795 new home sales in 2022, RCLCO reported. Developed by Land Tejas/Starwood Land, Sunterra is located near Clay Road, north of Interstate 10, west of the Grand Parkway.
Ranked No. 5 in the nation is Bridgeland, an 11,500-acre community in Cypress on the northwest side of the Houston area. Bridgeland had 985 new home sales in 2023, up 74 percent from the 567 homes sold in 2022. Developed by Howard Hughes Holdings, Bridgeland is located near the Grand Parkway, south of Highway 290.
Ranked No. 12 in the nation is Marvida, which had 835 home sales, up 31 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 14 in the nation is Tamarron with 774 home sales, up 78 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 19 in the nation is Baytown Crossings with 633 home sales, up 89 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 21 in the nation is Caldwell Ranch with 633 home sales, up 73 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 22 in the nation is Breckenridge Forest with 630 home sales, up 101 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 26 in the nation is Sienna with 606 home sales, up 73 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 29 in the nation is Tavola with 573 home sales, up 13 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 37 in the nation is Meridiana with 497 home sales, up 24 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 47 in the nation is Elyson with 400 home sales, up 10 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 48 in the nation is Harvest with 391 home sales, up 73 percent from 2022.
Ranked No. 50 in the nation is Jordan Ranch with 385 home sales, up 19 percent from 2022.
While existing home sales in many cities faltered last year due to economic conditions, newly built houses showed resiliency.
Home builders have adapted to the high mortgage rate environment that has suppressed sales of existing homes. Builders have engineered mortgage-rate buy-downs enabling home buyers to obtain 30-year mortgages at less than 6 percent while the prevailing mortgage rates soared over 7 percent in the open market.
Some builders trimmed back the size of houses or sliced out accoutrements to make sales prices more attainable.
In-migration has also boosted home sales in Texas, Florida and other Sunbelt states. The state of Florida represented 40 percent of sales among RCLCO’s top-ranked communities, followed by Texas at nearly 37 percent.
The Villages No. 1 in America
A Florida community northwest of Orlando, The Villages, is once again the top-selling community in the nation with 3,029 sales in 2023, RCLCO reports. The Villages is an active-adult community restricted to home buyers who are 55 years old or older.
Houston and Dallas have consistently been the top two markets in the nation for homebuilding, a trend that has prevailed for a decade.
In 2022, Houston led the nation in single-family building permits with 45,584 construction permits, followed by Dallas with 41,437, according to recent stats from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“The demand in Texas is driven by population growth,” said National Association of Home Builders chief economist Robert Dietz, speaking at a press conference last year in Las Vegas.
Jan. 9, 2024 Realty News Report Copyright 2024
Photo by Cynthia Lescalleet, CALpix copyright 2024
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