HOUSTON – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) – Houston’s master-planned communities dominated the national rankings in 2020, with eight Houston-area developments placing among the nation’s top 50 home-selling neighborhoods, according to RCLCO Real Estate Advisors.
RCLCO’s annual survey ranks the top 50 master-planned communities nationwide by new home sales. In 2020, residential projects in Florida and Texas again led the list. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which RCLCO determined did not severely hamper the master-planned community sales market, both states posted strong results in multiple categories.
Many residential analysts say suburban housing markets benefited during 2020 as buyers moved away from dense urban and multifamily settings toward more spacious single-family communities in the suburbs. Historically low mortgage rates last year also fueled stronger demand and higher sales activity.
Houston played a major role in Texas’ strong showing. “The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metro ranks as the top-selling area, both in terms of total communities within the top 50 (eight MPCs) as well as total sales, with more than 5,000 homes sold among the 50 top-selling MPCs,” the RCLCO report states.
Houston-area communities that ranked in the top 50 include:
Bridgeland (No. 9), in Cypress. Developed by Howard Hughes Corp. Bridgeland reported 873 new home sales in 2020, a 19 percent increase from 2019.
Balmoral (No. 12), in Houston. Developed by Land Tejas, Balmoral sold 841 homes in 2020, an 80 percent increase over 2019.
Sienna (No. 15), in Missouri City. Developed by Johnson Development and Toll Brothers, Sienna recorded 773 new home sales in 2020, up 50 percent compared with 2019.
Tamarron (No. 25), in Katy. Developed by D.R. Horton, Tamarron reported 604 sales in 2020, an 84 percent jump from 2019.
Cross Creek Ranch (No. 36), in Fulshear. Developed by Johnson Development Corp., Cross Creek Ranch sold 510 homes in 2020, a 5 percent increase from the prior year.
Elyson (No. 40), in Katy. Developed by Newland Communities, Elyson recorded 497 sales in 2020, a 43 percent rise year-over-year.
Harvest Green (No. 43), in Richmond. Developed by Johnson Development, Harvest Green sold 481 homes in 2020, up 35 percent from 2019.
Sierra Vista / Sterling Lakes (No. 45), in Arcola. Developed by Land Tejas, the combined Sierra Vista and Sterling Lakes communities reported 474 sales in 2020, a 37 percent increase from the previous year.
Florida remained prominent at the very top of the national list. “The Villages, with 2,452 home sales, is again ranked as the top-selling community in the country,” the report notes. Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota claimed the second overall spot and is the top-selling all-ages community nationwide. Rounding out the top five are Summerlin in Las Vegas, Wellen Park (formerly West Villages) in Venice, Florida, and Daybreak in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Key takeaways from the RCLCO survey include:
- The 50 top-selling master-planned communities in 2020 experienced total sales roughly 20 percent higher than in 2019.
- For communities on this year’s top 50 list that had available 2019 sales data, the average increase in sales was about 40 percent in 2020.
- Sales among the top 10 master-planned communities were more than 12 percent higher than their 2019 totals.
While the presence of familiar names on the list likely won’t surprise observers of the MPC market, the degree to which the pandemic failed to devastate sales may be unexpected. RCLCO reports that COVID-19 influenced approximately 30 percent of buyers’ decisions, but for most buyers it was not the primary motivating factor.
RCLCO identifies several trends that had greater influence on sales than the pandemic itself: demographic shifts, historically low interest rates, and exceptionally low levels of resale inventory. Together, these factors greatly increased demand for new homes and ultimately had more impact on market dynamics than COVID-19 concerns, although the pandemic did push some buyers to act more quickly to secure preferred housing.
In an interview included in the RCLCO report, Garilyn Bourgeois, director of marketing for Brookfield Properties, said of the Eastmark community that “COVID-19 has increased the desire for newer, better, and bigger spaces. However, it is the low interest rates that have provided the opportunity for many buyers, and the historically low levels of resale inventory which has accelerated urgency and increased demand for new homes.”
Officials at other top-selling MPCs echoed that sense of urgency. Laura Cole, senior vice president at Lakewood Ranch—one of the highest-ranking all-ages communities—highlighted the local resale market’s short supply, with roughly 1.4 months of inventory, as a key driver pushing buyers toward new construction and helping Lakewood Ranch maintain a top position in RCLCO’s rankings.
Jan. 6, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
File: Houston Communities Dominate RCLCO Master Planned Communities Top 50
File: (2) RCLCO. Bridgeland. Houston Communities Dominate sales on new homes in 2020.
Image: Bridgeland. Howard Hughes Corp.