Austin Business Journal reports, "Liberty Hill’s Santa Rita Ranch has claimed the title of top-selling master-planned community in the Austin area for the third consecutive year.
That distinction comes despite an overall drop in sales, according to Robert Charles Lesser & Co.’s 2022 list of the top selling master-planned communities nationwide. No other Austin-area neighborhood sold enough homes to rank in the country's top 50.
In all, 450 Santa Rita Ranch homes were sold in 2022. That was good enough for the development to top all rivals in the Austin area and secure the No. 32 spot nationally.
RCLCO has conducted a survey to identify the top-selling master planned communities since 1994.
According to Santa Rita Ranch developer Ed Horne, it’s not just the homes that make the development attractive.
“It’s not just our respected homebuilders, but it’s also the amenities and lifestyle,” Horne said in a statement. “We had $8 million in amenities on the ground not long after the community opened and a very active resident calendar with an onsite lifestyle director. Currently, we have $40 million in amenities and have expanded the lifestyle program to include two onsite lifestyle directors. There are also four onsite schools with two more on the way. All of that resonates with today’s home buyer.”
Despite sales dropping 13% from the 515 reportedly sold in 2021, Santa Rita Ranch actually inched up in the national rankings from the No. 38 spot in 2021.
Overall, only 12 of the top 50 master-planned communities sold more homes in 2022 than in 2021.
Santa Rita Ranch is not just the fastest selling master-planned community in the Austin area. According to Austin Business Journal's 2022 list of fastest growing residential neighborhoods, Santa Rita Ranch had more home starts in 2021 than any other Austin neighborhood with 687. When the list was published in April, the home price range in the neighborhood was $180,000-$1.05 million.
Buda’s Sunfield master-planned community did not appear on the 2022 list, but in 2021 was the only Austin-area development beside Santa Rita Ranch to appear in the top 50. In 2021, 504 Sunfield homes were sold.
Liberty Hill and Williamson County are fast-growing areas of the Austin-Round Rock metro. From 2010-2020, the Williamson County population grew about 44% from 422,679 to 609,017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The latest population estimate puts the county at 643,026 as of July 1, 2021.
While the Austin metro only had a single neighborhood appear on the list, Houston made a huge impact on the list, with 13 neighborhoods appearing. Nearly 6,000 homes were sold in the Houston neighborhoods, accounting for almost 19% of all homes sold across the top 50 neighborhoods."
Source: Austin Business Journal
Written by: Cody Baird
Published: January 6, 2023
Posted by Grossman & Jones Group on
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