Sienna Plantation hits top build spot
STAFF WRITER
Arange of new home offerings propelled Sienna Plantation to the top position for home starts in the Houston region in 2018.
Builders started 594 houses in the Johnson Development community near Texas 6 and Sienna Parkway in Missouri City in 2018, a 66 percent jump over the previous year.
“The community has many more different types of home buying options available and new home products than it did in the past,” said Lawrence Dean, regional director in Houston for Metrostudy, a housing consulting firm that compiled the list.
New home options in the 10,800-acre community include luxury townhomes targeting empty nesters as well as smaller, more affordable houses, Dean said. Duplexes by Chesmar Homes in the newly opened Heritage Park neighborhood will lower the price of entry to Sienna Plantation to about $200,000.
Sienna Plantation, which contains 8,200 houses, still has 5,200 lots left to build upon, according to Metrostudy. Amenities include multiple water parks, Sienna Plantation Golf Club and Sienna Stables.
Riverstone, a nearby Johnson Development community which had been the Houston’s region’s most active community since 2014, dropped to No. 9 with 352 starts in 2018.
Only about 630 houses remain to be built in the 3,800-acre community, which lies in both Missouri City and Sugar Land and has about 5,700 houses.
Fulshear’s Cross Creek Ranch, the second most active community with 507 home starts last year, was among more than twothirds of the top 30 communities to experience double-digit gains in starts in 2018.
On Houston’s north side, starts in both the Harmony (No. 3) and Woodson’s Reserve (No. 23) communities along the Grand Parkway, east of Interstate 45, more than doubled as lower priced houses were added to the mix.
Harmony, a Land Tejas/ Johnson Development community at the Grand Parkway and Rayford Road in Spring, expanded its offerings in the popular $200,000 to $300,000 range, Dean said. Woodson’s Reserve, a development of Toll Brothers, added plans by M/I Homes starting under $300,000. Both have benefited from proximity to employment centers such as The Woodlands. Starts held relatively steady in Bridgeland, No. 4, and Aliana, No. 5.
In northeast Houston, The Groves hit its stride with the opening of another school as well as The Hearth Amenity Center, providing residents a resort-style pool, event pavilion, great lawn, hammocks and creek overlook. The wooded community, which has built 675 homes since opening in 2014, experienced a 30 percent jump to 231 home starts in 2018.
“We like to get our residents outside and have them connect with nature and each other,” said Mike Miller, vice president, Houston at Ashlar Development.
The Groves recently added plans by Chesmar Homes and Highland Homes on 40-foot wide lots, and Perry Homes on 45-foot wide lots.
“It took our beginning pricing at The Groves from the $240,000s now down to the $220,000s,” Miller said.