Austin Area Large Land Sales are Encouraging
There has been a lot of property available for sale to real estate developers and little or no movement in recent years. Part of the problem is that nobody seems to want to lend for large scale purchases. Well, several large tracts have sold recently in the Austin area.
The first was a part of Crystal Falls in Leander. Home builder Taylor Morrison bought 1,200 lots on 440 acres in the community and plans on building new homes soon. Though not a huge purchase, it was one of the largest sales in recent memory and it was a cash purchase.
This tells me that Taylor Morrison is bullish on Austin. They had done a lot of building in Steiner Ranch, another master-planned community in northwest Austin. As that community sees an end of home building, Taylor Morrison and other large, production builders need other places to go. Crystal Falls is a bit far away from downtown Austin, but there is good transportation into Austin and Round Rock.
Several thousand more acres are available in Crystal Falls and I have heard that there was good competition for the lots Taylor Morrison purchased. So we may see news of more land in the community selling before too long.
I just learned of a much more significant purchase today. The Headwaters at Barton Creek transaction consisted of 1,035 acres, 340 of which will have 1,000 residential lots. The list price was just over $15.5 million and the sold price was not disclosed. However, this is a very large purchase considering how large parcels have not been moving lately.
The Headwaters project is in Dripping Springs and borders Sunset Canyon on one side. Several more recent development in the area have done quite well. These include Belterra and High Pointe, both of which are still seeing a significant amount of new home construction.
