Pulte development with ‘green’ features showing success

Maybe it's the price point. Perhaps it's the environmentally friendly construction. Or it might just be the new floor plans.

For whatever reason, Villa Trieste, a new-home neighborhood that Pulte Homes opened Jan. 10 in Summerlin, posted the same number of sales in its first two weeks as most new-home communities can expect to sign in a month.

Statistics from local tracking and analysis firm Home Builders Research show Villa Trieste posted three net sales in its first 15 days -- the same number of closings that subdivisions marketwide are averaging per month. And though three sales in two weeks might not sound like a substantial number compared to the volume of contracts written at the market's peak, it's a significantly better performance than most local tracts experience today. Nearly 215 of the 324 actively selling communities Home Builders Research followed from Jan. 1 to Jan. 25 didn't have a single sale, and some actually saw net sales losses.

Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, said consumers flock in particular to any community that offers buyers something new and different.

And Villa Trieste delivers, he said: It has fresh floor plans unveiled for the first time in the local market, and it's the first local new-home subdivision to grab the highest distinction for environmentally friendly construction under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Homes standard.

On top of its green features, Villa Trieste is priced from the mid-$200,000s, a competitive starting point in a market with a median new-home price of around $245,000. It's also a desirable price given its location in sought-after Summerlin, Smith said.

"Everybody wants to go green, but the cost up to now has been prohibitive," he said. "If I'm looking for a house, and I find one in Summerlin that's competitively priced, that also happens to be green and that will save me energy costs, then heck, yes, I'll buy it."

Walter Cuculic, Pulte's area director of strategic marketing, said Villa Trieste's grand opening exceeded company officials' expectations. Like Smith, he credited starting prices in the mid-$200,000s, its Summerlin location and its LEED status for the community's early reception.

"When you combine a great location, a great product and an environmentally friendly home, it truly starts to resonate with consumers," Cuculic said. "It gives them a reason to sell their existing home and buy a new one."

All 185 homes at Villa Trieste feature solar-power arrays, complete with in-home "dashboards" allowing residents to monitor their energy and water use and compare it to their neighbors' consumption. A study will examine whether consumers' ability to gauge energy use creates incentive to cut kilowatts in the home. The goal is to reduce residential power use by 65 percent when compared with energy consumption in conventional homes.

A $7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy helped defray the cost of the solar systems.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.