Lennar buys 167 finished lots in northwest Las Vegas

Lennar Homes purchased 167 finished residential lots in northwest Las Vegas for $5.2 million, or about $31,000 a lot, and plans to close escrow on another 160 lots early next year, Rick Hildreth of Land Advisors Organization said Thursday.

The seller was Lexin Capital, a private equity firm from New York that acquired the land from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The land is part of the unfinished Tapestry community started by Las Vegas-based Astoria Homes, which went dormant when the housing market crashed.

It's near Farm and Fort Apache roads, with access to U.S. Highway 95 and the Las Vegas Beltway, close to shopping, entertainment and Centennial Hospital.

Lot sizes range from about 1,500 square feet to 2,000 square feet.

"They're small and because of that, they took a while to sell," said Hildreth, who brokered the land transaction. "But the market's so hot right now, builders don't have a lot of choice. They don't have a lot of finished lots, especially large lots."

Like most homebuilders in Las Vegas, Lennar has actively pursued Las Vegas Valley land acquisitions as new-home sales picked up in 2012.

Lennar bought about 800 home sites this year and closed on 575 home sales, up about 15 percent from a year ago, said Jeremy Parness, president of Lennar's Las Vegas division.

"I think we're going to continue to grow mostly because there's not a lot of inventory out there, so people are looking at new homes versus a short sale or foreclosure," he said.

Lennar launched its Sedona subdivision in the master-planned Summerlin community in December, and plans to open Lantern Gardens near Spring Mountain Road and Tenaya Way in the spring.

Homes at Tapestry will range from 1,200 square feet to 1,900 square feet, and probably start around $130,000, about one-third of the previous builder's price, Parness said.

Lots are small, but the community has abundant open green space, three parks and three pools.

"The community itself is a unique opportunity," Parness said. "It's an alternative to renting. The reason I bought this deal is this price point. I'm going to be delivering single-family detached homes for less than the price of rent."

Las Vegas, among the hardest-hit housing markets in the nation, appears to have turned the corner toward recovery with increased home sales and median prices.

The National Association of Home Builders included Las Vegas on a list of metropolitan areas that have shown improvement since the downturn in housing permits, employment and housing prices for at least six consecutive months.

More than 3,700 new homes have been sold in Las Vegas through the third quarter, a
33 percent increase from a year ago, Home Builders Research reported.

The median new-home price climbed to $219,285 in November, up 7.4 percent from a year ago and the highest since March 2009. Third-quarter permit count is up 53 percent from a year ago at 4,400.

"We've definitely turned the corner from the downturn," Southern Nevada Home Builders Association Executive Director Nat Hodgson said. "Making the list is an excellent Christmas present for the local housing industry and our community."

Sales volume at Land Advisors Organization grew from a little more than $40 million this year to about $50 million, compared with a little more than $40 million in 2011. The increase resulted from a combination of more transactions and slightly higher prices, he said.

Residential land in the Las Vegas Valley is going for around $150,000 an acre, up 10 percent to 20 percent from a year ago in some locations. Hildreth said he had offers above $300,000 an acre in parts of Henderson and the southwest.

Home Builders Research President Dennis Smith said land prices are rising, but not by much. They're down in some locations, he said.

"It's just really segmented," he said. "Builders are starting to move into other parts of town out of necessity because they can't find anything. Every builder looked at Tapestry for five years, five times over trying to make it work. Demand today is different than it was five years ago or three years ago."

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com
or 702-383-0491.