Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Condos, town homes opening in Summerlin
Construction wave first of its kind in more than a decade
Builders are targeting Summerlin with luxury town homes and condos, and the master-planned community is also seeing an influx of attached homes that’s making it more affordable as well.
Town home is the buzz word in Summerlin as builders opened models in August and September and will open more over the next six months. While technically they’re condos because buyers don’t own the land underneath, many functions as town homes with two or three attached either side-by-side or stacked in some cases.
There’s Toll Brothers opening models in October in The Ridges for its Fairways Hills community where town homes will be priced at $680,000 on the low end to more than $1 million at the upper level.
CalAtlantic Homes is selling town homes that start at $285,000 and will go into the upper $300,000s.
Other builders such as William Lyon Homes and Shea Homes have products whose price ranges will fall between those two, covering the whole gamut of buyers.
Builders said they’re just responding to the demand that more customers have for a lock-and-leave style where owners don’t have to worry about maintenance and landscaping, while having the feel of a single-family home. The demand for existing town homes and condos has been strong as evidenced by sales up 39 percent in July and 27 percent in August, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.
“It’s only natural that the town home market would improve,” said Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research. “The baby boomers have been a major force of the housing market and for the past two to three years, they’re downsizing. They (have wealth) and want products where they have amenities but don’t have to have a lot of upkeep. It allows them to travel to see the kids and grandkids.”
The town home and attached-home market has “always been strong in Vegas” compared to the rest of the country because of the number of people who are second and third homeowners, Smith said.
Prior to the recession, new attached homes were 15 to 20 percent of the market. It was non-existent after the recession, and grew to 4 percent of sales in 2016, Smith said. It could reach 10 percent this year with the inclusion of more affordable homes that are attractive to millennials in addition to the luxury ones getting built, he said.
Town homes can be built in phases, which means they won’t have a lot of inventory at once unlike a stack of condominiums, Smith said. Given there hasn’t been a lot of attached units built in the last decade and inventories are down, it’s a great time to build, he said.
“It’s nowhere near where it was before the recession, but it’s coming back,” Smith said. “I knew it would eventually as builders started to diversify their product types, which a lot of them had to do because they can’t find replacement lots or land at a price to build as many detached homes as they like.”
Brian Gordon, a principal at research firm Applied Analysis, said the regulatory environment has shifted in Las Vegas, starting with the 2015 Nevada legislative session related to construction defect litigation. That relief brought more builders back into the town home and condo construction, he said.
Summerlin, which has about 100,000 residents, is an attractive location for all types of town home and condo development because of its amenities. It’s home to more than 250 neighborhood and village parks, more than 150 completed miles of trails, nine golf courses, shopping centers, medical and cultural facilities and business parks.
The average price of new homes in Summerlin has centered around $600,000, and the wide range of prices for town homes covers the spectrum of buyers who want to live in the master plan.
“While Summerlin has long been known as a community comprised primarily of single-family homes, today we are welcoming a greater variety of attached housing products that accommodate emerging trends and lifestyles,” said Kevin T. Orrock, president, Summerlin. “Homes with smaller footprints and reduced maintenance are equally desired by generations on both ends of the home-buying-spectrum from millennials to empty-nesters and retirees who seek a more experiential lifestyle.
“As a result, we are responding with a growing number of attached homes in all price points. From inception, Summerlin was envisioned as a multigenerational community, and the growing diversity of housing options helps us maintain that goal.”
With many homes in the gated community of The Ridges selling in the high $1 million-range and exceeding $2 million, the opportuni-
TOWN HOME