‘First-time buyers can’t imagine (it)!’ A ts pring Valley Ranch east of Parker, homes on quarter-acres start in $360s
Builder LGI Homes has a business model that’s entirely oriented toward making homeownership affordable — but nowhere are the results more startling than at Spring Valley Ranch, a golf-course community east of Parker. LGI can show you an Aspen ranch-style new home, in a pretty neighborhood where homes are all on minimum quarter-acre sites with large yards and wide setbacks, from $366,900.
In a Denver metro market where the median sales price of a single-family home was $420,000 last month, that’s lured more than 30 sales to LGI Homes at Spring Valley Ranch just since the first of the year. Some of those have been typical buyers moving over from older homes in the Denver area, wanting some elbow room they’ve never had closer into town. But others are first-time homebuyers using LGI’S programs with participating lenders to get into something way beyond what their budget would reach in some other area.
“First-time buyers can’t imagine they can get into this with no money down!” says Nick Ebener with LGI Homes, who has seen numbers of families leaving apartment life for Spring Valley Ranch. He adds that the value in home-and-lot size by LGI is underscored by the quality of standard features LGI includes with all of its Spring Valley Ranch designs — including air conditioning; granite countertops not just in the kitchen, but the master suite, as well; and nine-foot ceilings in the basement. On these big sites (as large as an acre on some) a full-wide, three-car garage is available on most plans and walkouts are possible on some.
That’s all complemented by the attractiveness of Spring Valley Ranch as a community. You’ll pass the pretty public golf course on your way into LGI’S model home, where the clubhouse has a Creekside Grill that’s a favorite among residents for its $12.99 prime rib night.
Prices start from $366,900. To get a picture of how far your dollar can reach here, LGI will show you a four-bedroom Estes ranch, like LGI’S showhome, which sold last month. It was accompanied by the three-car garage and a day-lit walkout basement. The complete price was in the $450s range.
But don’t come expecting to see your average showhome staged with designer furniture. “They’re shocked by that,” Ebener says of buyers. “They actually see a home that includes all of the features they’ll be getting.” Buyers also see a choice of homes that LGI has underway now for early move-in; and as in all LGI communities, they receive loads of personal attention to how they can actually make this work within their budget.
LGI Homes, traded on the NASDAQ (LGIH) and now with some 17,000 homes sold around the nation, is Professional Builder magazine’s 2016 Builder of the Year, and maintains affordable pricing by slimming down the options process. LGI keeps buyer-friendly sales hours at Spring Valley Ranch, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day of the week. Spring Valley Ranch is east of Parker. Take I-25 south to Castle Pines Exit 188, turn left and continue onto Hess Road (becomes Hilltop Road) for 12 miles, turn left on Singing Hills Road and continue 5.5 miles, turn left on Spring Valley Ranch Road for a mile, turn right on S. Augusta Avenue for a mile to Annadale Trail. – Mark Samuelson writes on real estate and business; you can email him at mark@samuelsonassoc.com. See all of Samuelson’s columns online at Denverpost.com/realestate