Summerlin new-home sales ranks 3rd in US for builders
Homebuilders found plenty of buyers in Southern Nevada master-planned communities last year, with five such outposts among the top 25 nationally for sales.
Builders sold 1,619 homes in Summerlin last year, up 11 percent from 2020, according to separate reports this week from consulting firms RCLCO and John Burns Real Estate Consulting.
Both ranked Summerlin’s sales tally third highest among U.S. master-planned communities.
According to their reports, builders also logged 864 sales in Henderson’s Cadence community last year, up 1 percent from 2020; 741 sales in Henderson’s Inspirada community, up 25 percent; and 655 sales in Skye Canyon in the upper northwest valley, up 39 percent.
Meanwhile, John Burns Real Estate reported 1,025 new-home sales in North Las Vegas’ Valley Vista community last year, up 3 percent from 2020. RCLCO put Valley Vista’s sales tally at 860, down 15 percent.
The firms’ rankings for these four communities varied, but all were in the top 25 nationally for sales in both reports.
Southern Nevada master-planned communities are routinely among the top-selling spots in the nation for homebuilders, and, as the new reports show, last year was no different as housing markets across the country accelerated.
In Las Vegas, the market heated up with rapid sales and record prices, fueled largely by rock-bottom mortgage rates that have let buyers stretch their budgets. Buyers flooded houses with offers and routinely paid over the asking price, while homebuilders put buyers on waiting lists, regularly raised prices and in some cases drew names to determine who gets to buy a place.
Southern Nevada has seen more out-of-state buyers than usual during the pandemic, especially from pricier markets such as California, as people sought more space amid widespread work-from-home arrangements.
“The boom in work-from-home demand drove record master-planned community sales in 2021,” John Burn Real Estate said in its report, adding that all 500-plus communities it surveyed “certainly would have sold more if not for supply constraints.”
Homebuilders have faced higher materials costs and delivery delays, helping fuel higher prices for house hunters.
According to RCLCO, builders began “metering” their home sales, instituting “monthly or even weekly limits” within the first half of the year to ensure that new-home contracts could be fulfilled.
In Southern Nevada, demand for houses hasn’t shown signs of vanishing anytime soon, and builders are still pulling an increased tally of permits, indicating a growing pipeline of construction plans despite the industry’s headwinds.
A total of 1,293 new-home permits were issued in the region in November, up 28 percent from November 2020, bringing the year’s permit tally to 13,774, up 32 percent from the same 11-month period in 2020, Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research recently reported.
Builders also landed record-high sales prices multiple times last year.
Buyers paid a median price of $444,677 for newly built homes in Southern Nevada in November, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier, according to Home Builders Research.
This marked the sixth time in 2021 that the monthly median closing price set an all-time high, the firm said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.