Manufactured home developer plans 700-unit community near Lake Conroe
A Phoenix manufactured home developer is launching a 170-acre master-planned community north of Houston in a project that could bring 700 new manufactured homes not far from Lake Conroe.
Inspire Communities, which describes itself as one of the largest owner-operators of new manufactured home communities nationally, is planning a so-called “affordable luxury” community called Rockrose Ranch. The community is planned in Willis, a small city about 50 miles north of downtown Houston and 9 miles north of Conroe in Montgomery County.
Groundwork has started on the new home sites located off Interstate 45 at 11848 Calvary Road, about 2 miles east of Stow-a-Way Marina on Lake Conroe, according to Inspire. Rockrose Ranch will feature amenities residents may find in a traditional masterplanned community such as swimming pools, courts, children’s playground, fire pits, miles of walking trails, lakes and a fenced dog park.
At Rockrose Ranch, residents would own the manufactured house but rent the dirt underneath, similar to other land-lease style manufactured home communities. The community is expected to include two sections: an active adult community for residents age 55 and up who would buy the manufactured houses directly from Inspire; and an all-ages community where residents would buy homes from a local dealer, Loftin said. Home sales are expected to launch in a matter of weeks, she added.
Although Inspire has priced its manufactured houses in Rockrose Ranch, the price for houses in another one of its Houston-area
communities (Oceanway in Baytown) starts at about $140,000 for a 1,200 to 2,000 square-foot house with a view of the water. The average price for a manufactured home was $123,500 at the end of last year within the South region, which includes Texas, according to census data. (This excludes the cost of land, which is either leased or purchased separately.)
Inspire Communities recently wrapped up a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of its Oceanway community located at 7030 Tri City Beach Road in Baytown southeast of Houston. The 17-acre community features 150 homesites with 32 waterfront properties on Trinity Bay. The redevelopment included the addition of a boulevard lined with Victorian-style street lamps and palm trees leading out to a 650foot fishing pier with a boardwalk and covered seating.
Inspire’s new development projects are part of a growing field of developers in Houston promising to bring a more upscale approach to the manufactured home sector. Recently, a new Houston company called Live Lone Star broke ground on a 420-home manufactured home community in Pearland, south of Houston, as part of its effort to develop more than 3,000 manufactured home sites across Texas.
Like the rest of the housing industry, the manufactured housing sector boomed in the pandemic as demand soared. This year manufactured home builders are expected to deliver more than 100,000 new homes, the
most since 2006, according to Inspire, citing census data. The interest in manufactured homes comes as fewer Houstonians can afford a home in a local market where the median home price last month hit a record $355,000.
“There’s a tremendous demand for affordable housing in the area,” said Heidi Loftin, senior vice president, sales and marketing at Inspire Communities. “(Rockrose Ranch) and others like it, provides buyers with the opportunity for affordable home ownership in a highly-amenitized setting.”