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Real Estate Development News

New Home Inventory Continues Rebound in North Texas

New home inventory continues to rebound in North Texas. The supply of available new construction inventory experienced a sharp decline coming out of the pandemic. It rebounded sharply this year with the demand crush from the Federal Reserve and a doubling of mortgage rates. The Census Bureau reported new home sales for November at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 640,000 units. Sales for the previous months were revised down sharply. New home inventory posted at 8.6 months of supply according to Census. The Census sales numbers will continue to be noisy and overstated as [...]

First Phase of Cole Ranch Taking Shape in Denton

The first phase of the Cole Ranch development is taking shape in the southwest side of Denton. Hillwood Communities has been working on the project that will turn the former Hunter Ranch and Cole Rach in to a huge 3200-acre master-planned development with roughly 6000 homes. The initial plat of phase I of the project shows over 600 homes on tap. Those homes should be arriving as available inventory in early 2024. "Preliminary plans call for 663 single family lots, 48 townhome lots, 1 multifamily lot, 7 mixed-use regional lots, and 1 light industrial lot. [...]

Hunter Ranch Cole Ranch Development Presented To Denton City Council

The Denton City Council received a detailed presentation from Hillwood and Stratford Land representatives during Tuesday work session. The proposed master-planned community of Hunter Ranch and Cole Ranch would encompass roughly 6000 acres and bring 15,000 new homes to the City of Denton, boosting Denton's housing stock by nearly 50 percent if the project were to be approved. A central question at the Denton City Council meeting was whether or not a special financing district or MMD (Municipal Management District) is the best path for the city to partner with developers Hillwood Communities and Stratford [...]

Trendmaker Homes Comes To Dallas Via TRI Pointe Acquisition of Dunhill

California based TRI Pointe Group is expanding its Texas footprint by purchasing Dallas-based Dunhill Homes for a reported $60 million. Dunhill Homes operates in the Dallas-Fort Worth market under the Dunhill and Nathan Carlisle Homes brands. Effective January 1st, Dunhill will begin operating under the Trendmaker Homes brand. Trendmaker Homes was previously part of Weyerhaeuer before the Houston area builder was acquired by TRI Pointe several years ago. Trendmaker builds a number of affordable luxury homes in the Houston and Austin markets. With the absorption of Dunhill Homes, TRI Point will acquire Dunhill's assets, and [...]

New Denton High School Campus Design Plans Presented To School Board

The new Denton High School campus design plans were presented to the board at Denton Independent School district's November 13 meeting. The $194 million project near North Bonnie Brae for a new Denton High campus is scheduled to open in the fall of 2022. The new campus is part of Denton ISD's 2018 bond package that contained a number of campus improvements and additions to handle the growing student population in Denton ISD. VLK Architects has been working with Denton ISD, along with a host of consultants, teachers and administrators, to put the project together and [...]

Beazer Homes Soars On Short Squeeze, Share Repurchase Plan

Beazer Homes shares soared roughly 30 percent in a single day after the Atlanta-based homebuilder reported fourth quarter and full fiscal year results on Tuesday. From the reaction of the stock yesterday, you would think Beazer had patented a new home construction process or something else miraculous. Obviously something was thrilling investors, because it wasn't demand for Beazer homes in the fourth quarter, which fell according to the company's press release. According to Beazer, unit orders during the fourth quarter fell 0.8 percent to 1305 homes. Beazer's homebuilding revenues rose 14 percent for the fourth [...]

High Prices, Higher Rates Stall Dallas Fort Worth New Home Market

High prices and higher rates are hammering the Dallas-Fort Worth new home market. Starts from new home builders are now expected to increase by only a few hundred homes next year. I am not surprised. I covered this development a few days ago in my post on DR Horton's fourth quarter results, but a recent piece in the Dallas Morning News citing an industry insider/expert highlights the failure of local media to report on what is actually happening. My October housing market report for the DFW area explains why the correction in the local real estate [...]

LGI Homes Stock Nosedives As Q3 Sales Decline 7.4% With Higher Community Count

Woodlands based LGI Homes posted third quarter results that didn't impress the market. Home closings fell 7.4% in the latest quarter. More concerning is that LGI's sales decline occurred as the community count increased from 77 to 81. As I have detailed for much of the year, publicly-traded home builders are struggling to match the shift in consumer demand toward less expensive homes. As their order growth has stalled with higher mortgage rates, builder stock prices have suffered. LGI's problems are more complex. I suspect that LGI's problems go beyond just average prices. LGI already builds [...]

LGI Homes’ Beaver Creek In Denton TX A Haven For Wall Street Landlord

The quiet little community of Beaver Creek on the north side of Denton Texas offers a perfect portrait of what's wrong with the current housing market in the United states. Beaver Creek is an LGI Homes community that specializes in affordable starter homes priced in the mid to upper $200's. Having viewed the community earlier this year, I was interested to see how sales would progress since Denton Texas is a popular destination for DFW home shoppers looking for affordable homes. Denton home prices are generally more affordable than the average prices in the Dallas-Fort [...]

Sears At Golden Triangle Mall In Denton TX Closing In September

Sears Holdings announced a new batch of store closings and it appears the long anticipated closure of the Golden Triangle Sears location is finally here. After reporting dismal first quarter results, Sears announced a new batch of 72 Sears and KMart locations that will be shut down in September. According to the latest press release from Sears Holdings, the auto center at the Golden Triangle Denton TX location will shut down in early June. In addition to the Denton Sears closure, three other DFW stores will also be shut down in early September. Those Sears [...]

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