Cadence has good showing in midyear sales

As home sales picked up in the second quarter, especially in June, Summerlin remained at the top spot for the year among master plans, but Cadence in east Henderson is also increasing its market share.

Summerlin was ranked No. 5 in the country and Cadence No. 10 in the latest six-month national rankings released by consulting firm RCLCO.

Cadence made some headway during the spring and early summer, according to Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research in their second-quarter report, which listed the top 10 master plans in Las Vegas that go beyond the RCLCO list.

Cadence had 300 net sales — sales minus cancellations — in the April-June quarter compared with 287 in Summerlin. During the first quarter, Summerlin had 250 net sales while Cadence had 166.

“Expect Summerlin (which has 22,500 acres) to see a growing number of sales going forward in the short-to-midterm, though — as their latest villages feature a higher number of denser communities, both attached and detached product types — at relatively lower base asking prices,” Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith said.

Cheryl Gowan, Cadence’s vice president of marketing, said it’s great that her master plan has a number of products for first-time buyers as well as move-up buyers, and that creates an opportunity for those looking to buy a home, she said.

The 2,200-acre development in Henderson, which started sales in December 2014, has recorded 4,447 sales.

“We’re very proud we’re on par with Summerlin and anticipate keeping the same pace of the first half of this year into the second half,” Gowan said.

The second quarter of 2023 provided a bit of a rebound for builders compared with a year ago. There were 2,930 net sales in the April through June period, a 15.7 percent increase over the 2,531 in the second quarter of 2022. The net sales were up 9.7 percent from the 2,669 in the first quarter.

The RCLCO national rankings reflected how during the first six months of 2023, Las Vegas master plan sales were down over 2022, so the rebound is a good sign of what’s to come as the market deals with affordability issues and higher interest rates.

The second quarter net sales were down from the 3,235 in the second quarter of 2021, a drop of 9.4 percent. Before the pandemic in 2019, however, the second quarter recorded 2,681 net sales, which means the 2023 showing was 9.2 percent higher.

“That has been used as a more realistic benchmark for performance by many industries since the pandemic,” Smith said of the 2019 comparisons.

Some 53 percent of the new home net sales during the second quarter happened within one of the major projects in the valley, Smith said.

After Cadence and Summerlin, Inspirada ranked third with 146 net sales. It’s No. 39 in the nation for the midyear national rankings.

Skye Hills in the northwest valley was fourth with 144 sales during the second quarter. It is not viewed as a master plan under the RCLCO rankings.

Skye Canyon, which ranked No. 53 in the national RCLCO rankings, had 116 net sales during the second quarter.

Sunstone, which is northeast of Skye Canyon, had 97 net sales.

Lake Las Vegas in Henderson had 88 net sales followed by the Villages at Tule Springs in North Las Vegas with 83, Valley Vista in North Las Vegas at 61 and Anthem in Henderson with 44.

During June, Smith said Las Vegas homebuilders reported “an excellent month” as the second month in 2023 and first since March in which there were more than 1,000 new homes sold.

“This year’s sales market has performed more traditionally, with sales building from the start of the year and remaining fairly consistent from March through June,” Smith said. “This is in contrast to 2022 where the market reacted to rising interest rates in the second quarter, leading to a rather significant drop in sales which maintained itself throughout the rest of the year.”

The cancellation rate for the month of June “was healthy at 14 percent, and was steady throughout the second quarter and a tick down from the first quarter,” Smith said.

The sales conversion rate held steady in June at 6.2 percent.