Looking for some decent housing news for a change? Try this: A major land developer with 22 master planned communities in 14 states has already equaled last year's sales.
"It's not all bad news," said Bob McLeod, chairman and CEO of the San Diego-based Newland Real Estate Group. "In fact, our sales are up about 9% over this time last year."
Newland is one of the largest and most diversified developer of new-home communities in the nation, with a correspondingly large database of customer sentiment to draw upon. According to the company, as the country experienced the great housing recession, it quietly built a system to track significant details about its customers' home and community preferences.
"I believe we have the largest database of home shoppers in America," said McLeod. And those folks have told Newland what they want in their next place.
One statistic that stands out is that 61% of Newland's shoppers indicate they plan to make their next new home purchase within the next 12 months, and almost 17% say they plan to move in the next three months.
Newland has spent the past few years mining the data, re-tooling its communities to offer a more diversified product mix and community amenities to meet the needs of those buyers who say they plan on spending more time visiting with friends and neighbors in their communities, and less time doing things like eating out.
"We're seeing a higher level of interest from younger shoppers and empty nesters, with different needs than the traditional family buyer," McLeod reported. "As a result, we're working with our builder partners to develop product designed for how people want to live today."
Newland expects to complete at least one of its currently active communities next year and open two new properties, one in Tampa, Florida and the other outside Seattle.
