Professional Business Publications
The Leading Contact Source for the Home Building Industry

The nation’s largest homebuilding companies appear to be confident the housing market recovery is going to continue and they’re staffing up to reap the rewards.  After years of cutbacks and consolidations, the top builders have invested heavily in their top personnel.  Two key indicators highlighted with the release of the 2013 National Builders Directory are dramatic increases in the number of contacts and the number of offices that these builders have added over the past year.

Total contacts of key decision makers has increased by more than 25% in The 2013 National Builders Directory compared to the 2012 Mid-Year edition.  The 2013 Directory features more than 7,500 key contacts, compared to just over 6,100 in the last directory. 

The total number of offices tracked by the National Builders Directory also has increased in recent years.   The number of offices covered in the directory now tops 900, up from just over 600 offices that these builders had wittled down to during the housing crash.

In terms of personnel, builders have added to their staff and filled positions that have been left open for years or that were being handled by others department heads.  This has been particularly noticeable in the areas of Land (Acquisitions & Development), Sales and Marketing.  At this point in the home construction recovery, overall builder confidence is up and building permits and home starts have increased.

The 2013 National Builders Directory covers the top 250 homebuilders in the United States.  The directory includes information on the corporate offices as well as the division and regional offices of these builders, with detailed contact information for the key decision makers in each office.

To learn more about the 2013 National Builders Directory please visit our website at www.probizpublications.com

About Professional Business Publications, Inc. Professional Business Publications, Inc., is a leading provider of high-level contact information for real estate industry professionals and companies doing business in all aspects of the real estate industry. Founded and run by a team of seasoned reporters and editors, PBP is focused on providing subscribers with specific and up-to-date contact information for the key decision makers in the real estate industry in a format that is easy to use. 

PBP's industry leading publication, The National Builders Directory, is a one-of-a-kind directory of the leading decision makers in today's home building industry. It is a must-have directory for anyone doing business in this highly competitive industry. Covering the top 250 production home builders in the U.S., and updated twice each year, the directory provides readers with current contact information for all the key people in all corporate, division and regional offices.   

Taylor Morrison has purchased one of the largest Austin, Texas, area parcels in recent history with the aim of installing a new master-planned community.

According to the Austin Business Journal, the company recently closed on 2,100 acres in Leander.

Infrastructure will be built over the next year. Then Taylor Morrison will likely partner with other home builders to populate the new neighborhood with homes and amenities.

The Austin Business Journal's Colin Pope said it’s no surprise Taylor Morrison made the investment in Williamson County, which is on track to have a larger population than Travis County by 2040.

The key executive for The Lookout Group, which sold the land, implied that the property delivered a premium.

“We knew the players, and they made a retail offer for the land,” said Bill Hinckley, president, of the Houston-based Lookout Group.

Although no one associated with the deal will disclose how much was paid for the site, some local land brokers have heard that the deal closed for $50 million to $55 million.

Reported by Austin Business Journal (04/26/2013)

The pace of housing starts in March tipped a milestone, posting an annual rate of 1.04 million units, an increase of 7 percent from February and up 47 percent from a year earlier. 

Denver's MDC Holdings Inc., which has seen an uptick in its homebuilding business in Florida, announced Wednesday evening the company's expansion into the Orlando area.

MDC Holdings (NYSE: MDC) has been building homes in Florida for almost 10 years through a subsidiary, Richmond American Homes of Florida. The company said it will build a total of 116 one- and two-story homes in two Orlando neighborhoods, called Brynmar and Bella Lago.

The size of the homes will range from 2,275 to 4,214 square feet.

MDC Holdings delivered 195 new homes in Florida last year, which is an increase of 3 percent from the year before, according to the company's annual report. The 190 new homes the company delivered in Florida during 2011 was a 3 percent decline from the prior year.

Reported by Denver Business Journal (02/04/2013)

Analysts say the price of land in Las Vegas is rising at a “downright scary” pace as the housing market recovers.

A report from Home Builders Research shows prices rose to $250,000 to $275,000 per acre in February. That’s a $100,000 increase from November and December, when developers were buying land for about $175,000 to $185,000 per acre.

Research firm president Dennis Smith predicts land prices will level off about mid-year and hold steady for a while, saying the economy is still too weak to sustain such rapid price increases.

The report, cited by the Las Vegas Sun, also shows growth in new homebuilding as the inventory of existing homes remains tight.

There were 510 new home sales in greater Las Vegas in February, up 65 percent year-over-year.

Reported by CBS Las Vegas (03/22/2013)

The Woodlands-based LGI Homes has closed on a deal for 208 acres at the Luckey Ranch subdivision on the far West Side of San Antonio.

LGI Homes plans to build more than 800 homes at the site, near U.S. 90 and Loop 1604 West, said Ed Kalikow, CEO of the New York-based Kalikow Group, which owns the Lucky Ranch project.

In 2011, the homebuilder purchased 93 acres there for the construction of nearly 400 homes.

It's already built and sold about 218 houses, Kalikow said.

LGI Homes is the only company that's constructed houses at Luckey Ranch.

The homes it offers range in size from three to five bedrooms, and from 1,200 square feet to 2,600 square feet. Prices ranges from $129,900 to $172,900.

Luckey Ranch is a 610-acre project with plans for 2,400 homes.

About 540 acres will be dedicated to residential homes and the remaining 70 acres will be set aside for commercial development.

Kalikow hopes to have commercial project under way in the next two to five years.

LGI Homes also built homes at the nearby Canyon Crossing subdivision. Those houses are sold out, according to the company's website. Kalikow decided to invest there after seeing the demand for new housing in the area.

“Some of the things we look for when we look to invest outside New York City are good essentials: growth, great employment, quality of life,” Kalikow said. “And we obviously think San Antonio has all of those characteristics, and we think that's a good place for us to invest.”

Kalikow Group also owns land in New Braunfels, which is being developed for residential homes.

About 30 percent of homes built in San Antonio are on the West Side, which has the highest concentration of new-home starts in the city, said Jack Inselmann of real estate research firm Metrostudy.

“The growth continues, and it's just moving farther and farther out,” he said.

Reported by mysanantonio.com (03/13/2013)

The Orlando market will be the site of Mattamy Homes' biggest exclusive master-planned community in the US - with the company's $15 million purchase of the Tapestry property in the City of Kissimmee.

The Mattamy model for such "complete communities" has proven highly successful in many signature, sought-after neighborhoods across Canada. Mattamy communities are renowned for their integration, as the company is involved in every aspect of community planning, from purchasing the raw land, to planning the streets, to designing the homes to creating park spaces and walking/biking trails and other amenities.

The Tapestry purchase is expected to formally close following final approvals from the City of Kissimmee, sometime in the late second quarter of 2013. The $15 million deal is for some 250 acres within the city limits of Kissimmee, FL (Osceola County), located just south of Osceola Parkway and East Dyer Blvd on Carroll Street.

"This will be Mattamy's first master-planned community in the Orlando market, and our largest such project in all of our US markets. It will be totally Mattamy, from raw dirt to complete community, and we're very proud and excited about that opportunity," says Steve Parker, President of Mattamy's US Group. "Mattamy has a long history of developing large master-planned communities in Canada, and we're looking forward to bringing that successful model to life here in Orlando."

Mattamy's Tapestry community will include up to 1,100 lots across a variety of product types (townhomes and a number of sizes of single-family homes). Pricing will start from the mid-$100,000s. The community will be highly amenitized, including a clubhouse, swimming pool, park areas, water areas with three lakes over 10 acres each and several more ponds located throughout the property. The location will make the community highly desirable:

Tapesty is literally directly between and within just minutes to the major Disney attractions, Lake Nona's Medical City, and Orlando International Airport, which are three of the Orlando area's largest and healthiest economic centers today.

Tapestry is also just down the street from "The Loop", which is a new major shopping center offering all the modern retail conveniences today's families enjoy including big retailers, boutique shops, movie theater, popular restaurants, grocery stores and pharmacies.

"We anticipate that Tapestry will become the affordable live-work-play destination for Osceola County families who want an affordable new home in a vibrant new development corridor and that's within minutes of major employers and all their daily lifestyle needs," says Parker.

The grand opening for sales of Tapestry is projected to be in the second quarter of 2014, and the first homeowners should be closing on their homes in the late third quarter of 2014.

The Tapestry purchase is yet another example of Mattamy's commitment to being a major presence in the Orlando market, and of the company's confidence in the future of housing locally. It represents Mattamy's third major acquisition in the Orlando market in the last year, totaling approximately $50 million and the potential for some 2,000 homes.

Reported by Mattamy Homes Press Release (03/07/2013)

Taylor Morrison has purchased 510 lots in the Land O' Lakes community of Connerton, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Taylor Morrison will build on "a significant number" of the lots and sell the remainder to other builders, the Times reported.

The purchase price of the properties was not disclosed.

The community has about 280 finished homes, with 4,000 lots remaining, according to the Times.

Stew Gibbons, a former Connerton executive who now works as a consultant for the community, told the Times that "this is the most optimistic time of the market we have seen in six or seven years."

Reported by Tampa Bay Times (03/07/2013)

D.R. Horton has purchased 28 residential lots in Smyrna for roughly $1.4 million, marking its return to a Nashville area market that analysts have pegged as being a leader in the nation’s housing recovery.

D.R. Horton Inc. bought remaining vacant developed lots in the Woodmont subdivision near Sam Ridley Parkway from Nashville-based land developer Scott Sohr. Sohr expects D.R. Horton, one of several national homebuilders scouting the Nashville area for lots and land for future development, to acquire more lots in that subdivision.

With the sale, Sohr plans to move forward with developing roughly 600 other lots he has remaining at Woodmont. “Nashville continues to grow, houses continue to be built, and we’re at the point where developers are going to have to put lots on the ground so builders are in a position to continue to have a place to build their homes,” he said. “Nashville is on a lot of people’s radar.”

Sohr acquired land for Woodmont roughly six years ago along with former business partners; he is now sole owner of the remaining sites. Expansions at automaker Nissan’s plant and other ancillary businesses have been key drivers of growth in Smyrna, where 726 permits were issued for single-family homes, apartments and townhomes last year, up about 20 percent from 2011, according to the city’s property records.

“We’ve seen more activity as a whole,” said Kevin Rigsby, Smyrna’s town planner.

D.R. Horton could soon start construction at Woodmont off Rock Springs Road and have homes available for sale by the summer. The Fort Worth, Texas-based publicly traded company, the largest U.S. homebuilder by revenues and closings, plans to start work with five floor plans. Prices of the new homes will start in the mid-$200,000s.

Celebration Homes and RiverBirch Homes built most of the roughly 175 homes completed or underway at Woodmont. Other builders were involved at the subdivision before the downturn in the nation’s housing market.

In addition to Woodmont, Sohr is involved with Nashville area residential projects such as Arrington Retreat where Phillips Builders, Drees Homes and RiverBirch are the three builders and Courtside at Southern Woods where Drees and RiverBirch are the builders.

As a land developer, Sohr buys land in areas considered attractive including because of quality of the local schools and shopping. He puts in roads, water and sewer lines and amenities such as swimming pools and clubhouses, and sells the lots to homebuilders.

Columbus, Ohio-based M/I Homes is among the handful of other national and regional builders scouting the Nashville area for sites to build homes.

“There are a lot of builders who would like to be in Nashville because of a solid performing market,” said Jason Brown, regional director with Metrostudy, a Houston-based research firm. “It speaks a lot that D.R. Horton is the first to actually invest some money in our community. It shows they truly do feel it’s going to be a good location for them.”

In a broader eight-county Nashville area market, housing starts were up 45 percent and closings up 20 percent last year, according to MetroStudy. Currently, a little more than 14,000 lots are available for new home construction, representing a 36.5 months supply. That supply of lots, however, is down by roughly half from a year ago and Brown expects continued tightening this year.

“Because starts have been up so much and we haven’t really been developing lots in Nashville for various reasons, now we’re starting to feel the crunch of limited supply,” he added.

Reported by The Tennessean (03/01/2013)

Crescent Resources, LLC, has acquired 221 acres from South Carothers Partners, LLC for a new residential community named Lockwood Glen in Franklin, Tenn. Planning is under way for the master-planned community of up to 384 for-sale homes and 240 apartment homes, and construction of the initial phase of 70 single-family homesites and 27 townhomes will begin in March. The property is located along the east side of the I-65 corridor approximately one mile south of Murfreesboro Road and will feature approximately one mile of frontage on the recently approved extension of Carothers Parkway.

“Williamson County is one of the most vibrant and economically attractive areas in the Southeast, and this property is well-positioned to satisfy the high demand for new housing,” said Keith Glenn, vice president of the residential division for Crescent Resources. “Adjacent to the major roadways that connect Cool Springs’ employment center and the planned Berry Farms, this is an exceptional location for a new master-planned community. With the addition of our thoughtful land plan and desirable amenities, we’ll transform the property into a great place to call home.”

With Cool Springs three miles north and Berry Farms three miles south, Lockwood Glen is within a five-minute drive of the major centers for growth in Middle Tennessee. More than 50,000 people work in Cool Springs daily, and that number is expected to continue growing with eight major commercial development projects currently under way.

Lockwood Glen is in Williamson County, which is ranked among the wealthiest and fastest growing counties in the country. The Council for Community and Economic Research ranked Williamson County as the wealthiest county in the U.S., considering cost of living and median household income. And, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Williamson County grew 44.7 percent between 2000 and 2010.

“Lockwood Glen is an ideal opportunity to introduce Crescent Resources’ residential division to the Nashville market,” said Andy Carmody, president of the residential division for Crescent Resources. “Along with our existing multifamily and commercial interests in the market, we now have significant residential investment in the future of Middle Tennessee.”

While planning for Lockwood Glen is ongoing, officials with Crescent describe a vision for a community with multiple family-friendly amenities. Home builders Celebration Homes, Goodall Homes and Regent Homes of Nashville have committed to purchasing all 97 homesites in the first phase. Officials expect the first homes, with prices starting in the low to mid $200s, to be complete early in 2014. Pearl Street Partners, LLC will continue in its capacity as the development manager of this community working in concert with Crescent Resources.

“We have had other groups recognize the value of this location and our vision for the property in the past,” says Khris Pascarella, principal of Pearl Street Partners, LLC, “We were impressed with Crescent’s reputation and commitment to quality planning and execution, so the opportunity to work with them to create a high caliber neighborhood in Franklin was very attractive.”

Long active in the commercial and multifamily development sectors in Nashville, Crescent is the master developer of the Cool Springs office parks Corporate Centre and Greenway Centre as well as the luxury apartment community Venue at Cool Springs. In addition Crescent owns 60 acres in Cool Springs that area entitled and planned for an additional 750,000 square feet of Class A office space. The company is also the developer of CentrePoint Distribution Park, a warehouse and distribution center in LaVergne (Rutherford County), Tenn.

Reported by Crescent Resources News Release