Riverstone and Bridgeland lead the way in busiest homebuilding spots

FORT Bend County’s Riverstone remained the Houston region’s busiest spot for homebuilding in 2017, as buyers sought out options that include million-dollar homes on expansive lots.

While builders started 26 fewer houses in Riverstone than the year before, the Johnson Development community maintained the top position for the fourth straight year with 468 home starts in 2017, according to housing information firm Metrostudy.

The community, which straddles Missouri City and Sugar Land, is on track for build-out in the next couple of years.

Some 40 miles away, along the Grand Parkway near U.S. 290 in Cypress, Bridgeland gained traction as it opened a model home park at Parkland Village, the second of four planned villages, earlier this year.

Bridgeland zoomed up five positions to No. 2 with 442 starts in 2017, Metrostudy said. The 36 percent gain in starts narrowed the gap between Bridgeland and Riverstone from 144 houses in 2016 to just 26 houses in 2017.

With more than 11,000 acres, it’s Houston’s largest master-planned community for active development.

That’s saying a lot, considering that greater Houston remains perhaps the nation’s hottest market for master-planned communities. Shad Bogany, broker associate with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene, said they continue to blossom here due to the lack of zoning.

Everything is planned down to the location of individual trees, Bogany said. Buyers pay a premium to live in masterplanned communities, but the purchase comes with better amenities and a sense of security.

“If you buy into a master-planned community, you’re going to hold your value a lot better, and the schools are a lot better,” Bogany said.

Of Houston-based Johnson Development’s six communities in the local top 25, sales rose most in its agricultural-themed Harvest Green neighborhood outside the Grand Parkway at West Airport in Richmond. Starts shot up 27 percent to 326 homes in 2017 in Houston’s first agri-hood, where residents can participate in a community farm.

Nearby Aliana, which also has about two years until build-out, kept its No. 3 position with 437 home starts, Metrostudy said.

Elyson, a project of Newland Communities west of the Grand Parkway at FM 529, established a new frontier for home building as starts more than doubled in 2017 to 182 houses, Metrostudy said.

Cross Creek Ranch and Sienna Plantation, ranked No. 4 and No. 5 respectively, are among a number of communities that now offer homes on 45-foot wide lots as a way to trim prices amid rising building costs.

Others include Bridgeland, The Woodlands, Woodforest, Harmony, Elyson, Veranda and Meridiana, said Lawrence Dean, Houston regional director for Metrostudy.

The demand is still there for expansive lots and luxury houses too, Dean said. Top sellers include Riverstone, where neighborhoods have oversized lots from 80- to 100feet wide, and Towne Lake’s gated Water’s Edge section in Cypress.

The Woodlands, another Howard Hughes Corp. community along with Bridgeland, moved back into the top 10 as builders added upscale homes in the Village of Creekside Place as well as townhomes starting in the high $200,000s in the Village of Sterling Ridge.

“For a new house in The Woodlands, it’s about as inexpensive as you get,” Dean said.