In another sign of the Inland Empire’s emergence as the region’s new-home hub, Ontario Ranch has replaced Irvine Ranch as Southern California’s homebuilding hot spot.
John Burns Real Estate ranked Ontario Ranch as the region’s top-selling master-planned community and No. 5 nationally. The Ontario community had 1,292 sales last year, according to Burns, a 71% jump from 755 sales in 2019, ranking it No. 8 in the U.S.
The 2020 surge also put the Ontario project above the Irvine Co.’s Irvine Ranch in industry rankings that have scored the Orange County community among the national leaders since the Great Recession ended.
By Burns estimates, 800 homes were sold on the Irvine Co. land — 14th-best nationally — down 6% from 850 in 2019 when it ranked No. 5. Like many coastal projects, Irvine Ranch has only a limited number of lots left to develop.
Such shortages created opportunities inland. Available — and cheaper — land lures builders. Expanded work-from-home choices in the pandemic era let more house hunters consider distant communities once ignored due to long commutes.
“Ontario Ranch is doing an exceptional job of absorbing the region’s job growth because it planned for this growth – coordinating new-home neighborhoods with new retail, investing in recreation, open space and other infrastructure, and innovating with very progressive technology,” said Caitlyn Lai-Valenti, senior marketing director for Brookfield Residential, one of the project’s developers.
Brookfield is also the sole developer for another project that made the Burns list — Audie Murphy Ranch in Menifee at No. 42. That community had 479 sales last year, up 124% from 214 in 2019. Brookfield’s Spencer’s Crossing community in Murrieta just missed the top 50 with 414 sales.
Inland Empire homebuilding has outpaced coastal markets of late, with 9,572 sales in the 12 months ended in November, up 8% in a year, according to DQNews/CoreLogic. Builders in Los Angeles and Orange counties sold 6,323 new homes in the same period, down 9% in a year.
The Inland Empire dominated SoCal homebuilding for much of this century’s first decade. It peaked at 70% of four-county sales in 2005 before crashing in the Great Recession. In November, 60.2% of the region’s new homes sold were in Riverside and San Bernardino counties — the highest share since August 2007.
“The factors guiding this growth have long been in place, especially with the logistics industry feeding the nation’s ever-increasing need for shipped goods,” Lai-Valenti said. In the Inland Empire, buyers “can get more home and a better quality of life for what they might be paying in more expensive markets. In general, the homes are larger, more comfortable and modern, with outdoor space and with room for working, distance-learning and entertaining.”
Also making the Burns Top 50 was Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine with 580 sales, up 5% and ranking No. 31. In 2019, its 553 sales were 20th best nationally.
Rancho Mission Viejo in south Orange County missed the top 50 last year. It had just 215 sales as its Esencia community has less than a dozen homes remaining to sell.
In 2019, Rancho Mission Viejo’s 623 sales ranked No. 12 nationally. Its next community, Rienda, opens in 2022.
-on January 20, 2021 at 04:11AM by Jonathan Lansner
Living Inland Marketing 