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Developers of the top 50 master-planned communities work hard to create “the perfect combination of attractive amenities, proper product segmentation, and creative, targeted marketing,” according to researchers at John Burns Real Estate.
Jody Kahn, senior VP and Devyn Bachman, senior research analyst, identified four “must-haves” for successful masterplans:
- A range of home sizes, types, and prices and a variety of builders (with rare exceptions for especially large and well-segmented communities);
- Consistent themes, such as signage, landscaping, lighting, street names, mailboxes, etc.
- Shared or reciprocal amenities and activities for a variety of lifestyles;
- Branding and marketing that give the community a unique and well-recognized identity.
“For a rare few, success is simply the right product in the right location at the right time,” they wrote in a recent report.
Each month the firm ranks the top 10 regions for their research clients. New home sales and pricing strength, job growth, and other fundamentals are used as criteria.
For January, the Northwest placed 6th, with only one project, Tehaleh, on the top 10 list. Annie Radecki, Northwest VP at the Burns firm, said that project has “experienced a volume upsurge due to the combination of its maturity and its affordability relative to the Seattle MSA.” Located in Bonney Lake, about 40 minutes south of Seattle, Tehaleh boasts Puget Sound’s largest collection of homebuilders and floor plans.
The top three regions in the JBRE rankings for January were the Southwest, North Florida and South Florida. According to the Burns company’s research, the 50 top-selling masterplans combined for more than 28,000 new home sales in 2018.