New Homes & Residential Real Estate Sales Surge
New Home Builders Embrace Surge in Sales Homebuyers Flood Tucson Market By Jay Gonzales
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Sales and construction of new homes and master-planned communities across Southern Arizona barely hit a speed bump in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s a real head-scratcher,” said Carson Mehl, VP of Cottonwood Properties and developer of Dove Mountain, a 6,200-acre, high-end master-planned community at the base of the Tortolita Mountains. “When the pandemic first came down, we had a big, quick, abrupt dip. We didn’t know what to expect. “I was pretty pessimistic and worried,” he said. “But I never would have anticipated the strength of the rebound that was to come. And it didn’t take very long.” Whether it was new homes or existing homes, high-end homes or first-time buyers, mas-
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ter-planned communities or individual developments, a brief lull in sales and construction was followed by a pre-summer jolt. Even better, there is nothing to indicate the market will weaken as the region continues to battle the virus into winter. “I don’t want to speak for all the builders – but it’s obvious all the builders are very active, purchasing more land, trying to get it developed and trying to get communities open to continue to serve this demand,” said Amy McReynolds, president of KB Home Tucson Division, which has 13 active subdivisions, including in the masterplanned communities of Gladden Farms, Rocking K and Rancho Sahuarita. The numbers definitely tell a story. In mid-August, new home sales accounted for 17% of all home sales in the region, up from
14.6% in 2019. In 2011, the market share for new homes was under 10%, she said. A May report by LendingTree, an online mortgage broker, said that in April, Tucson had the largest 2020 increase in Google searches for the term “homes for sale.” Good news that was echoed in multiple publications and studies that suggested Tucson is poised for post-COVID-19 recovery. “It looked pretty dire,” said Will White, a land broker for Land Advisors Organization, which represents several of Tucson metro’s large master-planned communities in their lot sales to homebuilders. Builders “all stopped spending money. They put their land deals on pause. They didn’t want to spend money on land development. Some of them didn’t want to spend money on vertical construction of houses.” www.BizTucson.com