201901.05
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New-home communities in Irvine, Ontario and near Mission Viejo among nation’s fastest sellers

by in News

  • A home being built in the the Irvine Co.’s Stonegate development in the Irvine Ranch master-planned community. (File photo by the Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Eastwood Village in Irvine Ranch includes the community of Morro by The New Home Company. (Courtesy Irvine Co.)

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  • An 8-acre park sits in the center of the Great Park Neighborhoods’ new Cadence Park neighborhood in Irvine. (Courtesy: Great Park Neighborhoods.)

  • CEO of FivePoint Communities, Emile Haddad, leads a tour through new homes and answers questions during the unveiling of Pavilion Park.

  • The backyard of model home by Seville at Park Place community in Ontario Ranch on Monday, May 7, 2018. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • Construction workers work on new homes by Seville at Park Place community in Ontario Ranch on Monday, May 7, 2018. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

  • A model home at the new community Viridian at Esencia in Rancho Mission Viejo, CA, on Tuesday, Sep 18, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • The entry area of a model home at the new community Viridian at Esencia in Rancho Mission Viejo, CA, on Tuesday, Sep 18, 2018. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Faris Lee Investments has completed the $4.82 million sale of Baker Ranch Center, a newly developed, four-tenant, retail center in Lake Forest. The 6,000-square-foot property is leased to Tenko Sushi & Teriyaki, Ameci Pizza, Sage Nail Lounge, and Sheesh Lebanese Kitchen. (Courtesy of Faris Lee Investments)

  • Details about a new 55-and-old housing complex in Beaumont is discussed at Pardee Homes Corona, Calif. regional office Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

  • Construction has started on the age-restricted community of Altis, a Pardee Homes Inland Empire development in Beaumont. Model homes for the 55-and-older neighborhood should be available for viewing this fall, according to the company.
    Seen here is the Elan style. (Courtesy of Pardee Homes)

  • Pardee Home’s Inland Empire homes at Beacon, in the master-planned Sundance community, was the winner of the Best Architectural Series priced under $1 million. Beacon Residence 1 was the winner of the Best Interior Merchandising of a Detached Home Under $600,000 award. (Courtesy of Pardee Homes)

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Southern California was home to four of the fastest-selling new communities in 2018, according to two fresh rankings.

Creating such a list is part art and part science. Results can be swayed by both the metrics of the tabulator and the level of cooperation from the developers.

Still, both long-time tracker RCLCO and relative newcomer John Burns Real Estate ranked in their respective Top 25 these major Southern California “master-planned” new-home projects: Irvine Ranch (by Irvine Co.); Ontario Ranch (by Brookfield, Lennar, Lewis and Stratham);  Rancho Mission Viejo (by Rancho Mission Viejo LLC) and near Mission Viejo; and Great Park Neighborhoods (by Five Point Communities) in Irvine.

Here’s how the sales trends and rankings in 2018 compared for these local project, according to the two reports:

Irvine Ranch: 1,000 sales by the Burns math — No. 5 nationally — vs. 1,814 in 2017 — No. 2. That’s a 45 percent drop. RCLCO saw 1,322 sales in — No. 3 — vs. 1,814 in 2017 — No. 2. That’s a 27 percent drop.

Ontario Ranch: 950 sales by the Burns math — sixth-best nationally — vs. 712 in ’17 — No. 11. That’s a 33 percent gain. RCLCO pegged Ontario Ranch at 1,005 sales — No. 6 nationally. A year earlier, the New Haven slice of the project was ranked 39th with 353 sales.

Rancho Mission Viejo: The Burns count had 610 sales — No. 12 in the U.S. — flat vs. 610 in ’17 — No. 12. According to RCLCO, there were 640 sales last year — No. 10 — vs. 595 in ’17 — No. 11. That’s an 8 percent gain.

Great Park Neighborhoods: 480 sales by the Burns math vs. 830 a year earlier, a 42 percent drop. Burns ranked this community in 2018 at No. 20 vs. 2017’s No. 9. RCLCO ranked it No. 21 last year vs. No. 9 in ’17.

Additionally, RCLCO ranked the new Sundance project in Beaumont by Pardee Homes No. 40 nationally for 2018 with 347 sales last year.

It’s just not the health of the local housing market that causes sales activity and the resulting rankings to ebb and flow, though 2018 was a challenging year for many builders. The number of homes available to sell is also a key factor.

Take Baker Ranch in Lake Forest by Toll Bros. and Shea Homes. It went unranked in 2018, a year after it was ranked as the nation’s 18th-best seller from Burns and No. 17 from RCLCO.

Why the switch? The community is nearly completely built out, so sales dwindled last year.