HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Houston kept its position as the nation’s top-selling metro for master-planned communities with 10 developments earning a spot on the Top 50 MPCs of 2025, according to RCLCO real estate consulting.
Two Katy area communities on Houston’s west side ranked in the top 10: Sunterra at No. 5 with 1,024 sales and Tamarron at No. 9 with 974 sales.
“The Houston MSA was once again the top-performing metropolitan area with 10 communities in the Top 50, representing 6,335 sales, or nearly 20% of all sales among ranked MPCs,” said the RCLCO report, which ranked developments by home sales in 2025.
The nation’s top-selling MPCs, which are characterized by a range of housing sizes and prices, open spaces, trails, recreation, and other places for neighbors to connect, are concentrated in the Sunbelt.
The Villages, an active adult community in the Villages, Fla., again ranked No. 1 with 3,611 sales in 2025, according to RCLCO. Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota, Fla. was second with 2,085 sales, followed by Cadence in Henderson, Nev. with 1,247 sales, and Babcock Ranch in Punta Gorda, Fla. with 1,066 sales.
Texas was home to about a third of the 34,203 homes sales in the top 50 communities, second to Florida, which captured 42% of the sales among ranked communities, according to RCLCO. The consulting firm has conducted surveys of master-planned communities for more than 30 years.
Texas is the nation’s power house when it comes to home building. Houston and Dallas have rotated the No. 1 and No. 2 positions often, sharing the glory of being topped ranked in single-family construction over the last decade with the third-place city trailing far behind.
Sales among the top 50 were down 3% in 2025 compared to 2024, according to RCLCO. That’s an improvement over the 6% decline at midyear. RCLCO predicts a moderate increase in total new home sales in 2026 as stronger GDP (in the 2.4% to 2.6% range) later in the year could spur job growth and housing demand.
Lawrence Yun , chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, recently noted that Houston is one of the strongest markets in the nation for home construction and that expanding supply helps to keep home prices lower. “Houston is creating more home construction, and therefore making home prices much more reasonable,” said Yun.
The 10 Houston MPCs with their 2025 RCLCO national rankings are:
No. 5, Sunterra, developed by Land Tejas/Starwood Land in Katy, reported 1,024 new home sales in 2025. That was down 23% from 1,325 sales in 2024.
No. 9, Tamarron, developed by D.R. Horton in the Katy/Fulshear area, reported 974 sales. The volume was up 32% from 737 sales in 2024.
No. 11, Bridgeland, one of two Howard Hughes Corp. communities on the Top 50 list, had 812 sales in 2025, a 13% drop. Bridgeland, which spans 11,500 acres near Highway 290 and the Grand Parkway in Cypress, moved down from No. 7 in the ranking last year with 938 sales. (Summerlin, a longstanding Hughes community with a vital town center near Las Vegas, ranked No. 10 on the list with 962 sales.)
No. 12, Anniston, a project of Friendswood Development Co. near Katy Hockley Road and Freeman Road in Katy, is a newcomer to the list with 775 sales in 2025. Prices start in the $200,000s for new homes by Lennar.
No. 17, The Grand Prairie, a development of Ember in Hockley northwest of Houston, reported 639 sales in 2025, its second year of sales. Sales were up 47% from 436 sales in 2024. Seven builders offer homes from mid $200,000s to $700,000s.
No. 24, Meridiana, a Rise Communities development in the Rosharon/Manvel area along the Highway 288 corridor south of Houston, sold 527 homes in 2025. Sales were down 5% from 555 reported in 2024.
No. 38, Sienna in Missouri City, logged 432 sales in 2025, down 26% from 585 sales in 2024. The longstanding Fort Bend County community is a development of Johnson Development/Toll Brothers/GTIS.
No. 41, Elyson, a project of Brookfield Properties in the northern part of the Katy area, registered 413 sales in 2025. Sales were down 16% from 491 in 2024.
No. 46, Lago Mar, a development of Land Tejas/Starwood Land along the Gulf Freeway in Texas City, made it into the top 50 with 380 sales. Sales were up 10% from 344 in 2024.
No. 50, Jordan Ranch in Fulshear, also moved into the top 50 with 361 sales in 2025. Sales in the Johnson Development community were up slightly from 358 in 2024.
Last year, Houston had 12 communities on the Top 50 list. These five communities dropped off the 2026 ranking:
Tavola, a Friendswood Development community in New Caney northeast of Houston.
Breckenridge Forest, a D.R. Horton community in Spring.
Marvida, a Land Tejas/Starwood Land community in Cypress.
Caldwell Ranch, a D.R. Horton community in Rosharon.
Cross Creek Ranch, a Johnson Development community in Fulshear.
On the future horizon, Johnson Development recently broke ground on a 1,500-acre master planned community on land acquired from The George Foundation, the overseer of the historic 20,000-acre George Ranch in Fort Bend County. The George Ranch was founded in 1824 on a league of land along the Brazos River in Mexican territory that was then known as Tejas.
In 2024, Houston led the nation in single-family home building with over 50,000 building permits. The Houston metro area was well ahead of the pack as population and job growth stimulated demand. National leader Houston recorded 52,851 single-family building permits in 2024, followed by Dallas with 47,045 and Phoenix with 30,166. The 2025 totals were not available at press time.
Jan. 7, 2026 Realty News Report Copyright 2026
Caption: Signs point to a new master-planned community by Johnson Development called The George off Ricefield Road in Fort Bend County.
Photo credit Realty News Report Copyright 2026.
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File: Houston Leads Nation for Master-Planned Communities