Smaller lots, smaller costs
Builders are keeping lot sizes smaller to hold prices of houses down
Some developers new to the area find that 50-footers are popular with suburban homebuyers.
Responding to consumer demand for more affordable suburban homes, some new developers and builders in the Houston area are keeping costs down by focusing on smaller lots.
“We are trying to address the needs of the current market in our various projects,” said Steve Sellers, president of the Texas land division for Toronto-based Empire Communities.
“We’ve found that 50-foot lots are very popular these days.”
The company has acquired a site west of Texas 146 and north of FM 646 in League City for a 540-home community that will offer homes starting in the mid$200,000s. More than half of the lots in the new development will be 50 feet wide, with 60- and 70-foot lots also available.
Most lots locally range from 45 feet wide, suitable for starter houses, to 70, 80 and 90 feet wide for move-up and luxury houses, but the 50-foot option has long been popular with buyers. About three in 10 houses started in the last year were built on 50-foot-wide lots, making it the most common offering, said Lawrence Dean, regional director for housing consulting firm Metrostudy.
The lots are suited for both starter and move-up type houses, he said.
“Fifty-foot and 60-foot lots are basically the bread-andbutter lots in the suburbs in Houston,” Dean said.
Another newcomer to the Houston market, HistoryMaker Homes of Dallas-Fort Worth, builds all of its homes — some as large as 4,000 square feet — on 50-foot lots. Houston division head Kurt Watzek said using smaller plots helps keep prices low.
The company is making its local debut in the Wright’s Landing community in Spring with houses that start in the low $200,000s.
“It’s a good time to come in,” Watzek said. “The only obstacle is finding the right lots to build on.”
HistoryMaker also plans to build in the Katy, Lake Houston, Conroe and other areas around Houston.
Empire even included 30-foot-wide lots among those it developed in Sommerall Park in the Copperfield area. The 82 houses on the smaller lots start at $170,000. Sellers said nearly all of them will be sold in the first year.
The League City neighborhood the company is now developing will be similar to Hidden Lakes, which Empire opened in 2013. The two communities are 2 miles apart.
The previously undeveloped land was acquired from Englewood Land Investments.
Builders have not been selected, but Empire’s new homebuilding division will likely be one of them, Sellers said. It also will build in Empire’s Dellrose development in Cypress.
While the shift to more affordable homes will give the homebuilding industry a boost next year, Dean said it will be a couple of years until growth in the economy and jobs become a meaningful driver.
Metrostudy projects 28,500 homes will be started here in 2018. That compares with an estimated 25,500 starts this year, Metrostudy said, and 26,250 in 2017.
Empire Communities, which delivered 400 lots this year and about 300 last year, is on track to complete 600 lots next year, mostly in Houston. It’s considering introducing 40-foot lots in some of its projects, which currently range from 44 acres to 600 acres, with Katy Trails in Katy and Lakeside in Georgetown rounding out its developments.