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Category Archives: Santa Clarita Valley
California Division: 2012 Year in Review
Source: Tom Reimers, President, (949) 852-8288 x28
The Good Life is in the Santa Clarita Valley
The Santa Clarita Team is currently marketing Placerita Meadows, a 95-acre property located within the heart of Santa Clarita. The subject site is zoned Mixed-Use Neighborhood (MXN), which allows for a variety of uses including residential, commercial and office.
The Placerita Meadows offering is a unique opportunity to control one of the last remaining residential/ mixed-use land developments within the City of Santa Clarita and the supply constrained Santa Clarita Valley.
As Land Advisors’ Santa Clarita Team discussed in prior blog posts, the Santa Clarita Valley is a highly desirable area for homeowners. The Placerita Meadows site is well-positioned to offer its future residents all of the area’s regional benefits. For example, Placerita Meadows is within walking distance to the Newhall Metrolink Station and several parks. The property also offers the following:
- Close proximity to several schools to include Old Orchard and Newhall Elementary Schools, Placerita Jr. High School and Hart High School
- Within minutes of Interstate 5 (I-5), Highway 14 (SR-14) and Highway 126 (SR-126), residents of Placerita Meadows will enjoy convenient access to major employment centers, commercial, cultural, educational, and recreational areas throughout Southern California
- Close proximity to shopping and entertainment at the Valencia Town Center, Stevenson Ranch Plaza and the Valencia Marketplace
- Just minutes away from higher education facilities including: The Master’s College, College of the Canyons, Clarita Career College, and California Institute of the Arts
The Santa Clarita Valley (single family) lot inventory* is holding steady. It currently stands at: 6,000 “Paper” Lots (unimproved lots that have entitlements), and 2,300 Semi-Finished Lots
*Source: Hanley Wood and Land Advisors Organization Research
Source: Michel Faris, Marketing Consultant, (949) 852-8288 ext. 14
KB Home Changes the Rules in Santa Clarita Valley
“When people are giving directions to their home, they always refer to some unique feature of their house as a landmark,” said Tom DiPrima, Executive Vice President, KB Home Southern California Division, in a recent Santa Clarita Signal article. “Buyers don’t want a cookie-cutter look to every home on the street.”
KB Home recently opened a new home interior design center in Santa Clarita, one of only three in Southern California. With the opening of the center, the public homebuilder is putting homebuyers in the driver’s seat by offering customization choices that were nearly unheard of in prior market cycles, including lot selection without imposed lot premiums.
KB Home is currently selling homes from three new communities within the Santa Clarita Valley, making it one of the most active builders in this submarket. Home prices range from the mid $300,000’s to the high $500,000’s. Other active builders include Pardee Homes, K. Hovnanian Homes, Lennar, Shapell Homes, and D.R. Horton.
The Santa Clarita Valley is a desirable location for Southern California families as it is known as one of the safest communities in the U.S. and offers multiple high ranking schools.
The majority of the Valley’s future developable lots are currently under the control of only a handful of developers. Therefore, residential land opportunities are a precious find right now in this favorable submarket.
The Land Advisors team recently secured a new listing in the Santa Clarita Valley. Stay tuned for more details to come!
Source: Michel Faris, Marketing Consultant, (949) 852-8288 ext. 18
Homes Sales jump in Santa Clarita Valley
Sales of existing single family homes in the Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) jumped a whopping 22.2% in October, while the overall California home sale market increased by only 3.1%. Existing home sales rose by 7.3% and condo sales rose by 28.8% from September to October in the SCV.
As parts of the SCV are nicknamed “Awesometown,” this suburban region just north of the Los Angeles Basin is a highly desirable place to live. With homes more affordable than ever and record low interest rates on home loans, the local SCV single family home market is performing better than the San Fernando Valley, where the median price of homes that sold last month was $350,000.
Multi-family construction is up throughout L.A. County. However, permits for single family housing still rule the Santa Clarita Valley. Single-family construction has historically been more consistent than multi-family projects.
Very few distressed/bank owned residential land assets are currently available for sale in the Santa Clarita Valley.
Source: Michel Faris, Marketing Consultant, (949) 852-8288 x14
Santa Clarita Valley Economic Snapshot: IMPROVING
Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Division’s Economic Snapshot report for July indicated that the Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) local economy is doing better than many of its surrounding communities. Housing prices are moving UPWARD, and the local unemployment is around 8%. Notice of Defaults recorded between July 1010 and July 2011 dropped 32%. Read more: http://www.the-signal.com/section/24/article/52558/
SALES STATS: Q3 2011, Santa Clarita Valley (Source: Hanley Wood)
Detached Product
- Regular Resale: Average Sale Price $435,450; Average Price/SF $195; Closings 394
- REO Sale: Average Sale Price $339,079; Average Price/SF $169; Closings 121
- New Home Sale: Average Sale Price $475,857; Average Price/SF $191; Closings 42
- Foreclosures: Closings 198
Attached Product
- Regular Resale: Average Sale Price $240,126; Average Price/SF $177; Closings 182
- REO Sale: Average Sale Price $182,178; Average Price/SF $155; Closings 88
- New Home Sale: Average Sale Price $465,167; Closings 9
- Foreclosures: Closings 137
Building permits are still hovering at incredibly low numbers these days in the SCV. According to a recent Santa Clarita Signal article, most of the SCV’s building permits requested are for single family units. This differs greatly from neighboring sub-markets where multi-family activity is booming.
Builders and developers are still waiting for lower development fees in the Santa Clarita Valley. They are having a difficult time finding residential land deals that make sense given the current economic environment. (Development impact fees are currently averaging approximately $50,000 per lot.)
Source: Michel Faris, Marketing Consultant, (949) 852-8288 x14
Riding the Santa Clarita Valley Rollercoaster
Homebuilders and developers looking to build and invest in the Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) are faced with high barriers to entry such as high development costs, challenging topography and various entitlement restrictions governed by the County of Los Angeles.
Four new master planned communities are selling homes in the SCV right now: West Creek/West Hills (Valencia), Fair Oaks (Canyon Country), Plum Canyon (Santa Clarita) and River Village (Valencia). According to Hanley Wood, there are…
- 14 new home communities actively selling homes – 6 in Valencia, 5 in Santa Clarita, and 3 in Canyon Country. 11 are single family detached product, 2 townhomes, and one duplex.
- Total of 1,551 units planned; 1,109 units remaining
- 29 new home closings this quarter to date (Q3); 86 closings year to date
- Average monthly sale rate is 1.9 units over the lifetime of the projects. Laurel Park at Plum Canyon and Artisian at West Creek have seen the highest monthly sale rate at over 3 units per month over the lifetime of the project.
- Home prices range from $270,000 – $656,657. Homes within the communities of Aria, Artisan and Esperto at West Creek; and Echo Pointe and Echo Ridge at Plum Canyon are selling below $400,000.
Homebuilders that are currently selling new homes in SCV are Lennar (West Creek and River Village), KB Home (Echo Pointe at Plum Canyon, Echo Ridge at Plum Canyon and Milan at West Hills), Pardee Homes (Fair Oaks Ranch) and Shapell Homes (Heatherton at Plum Canyon Ranch and Sage at Plum Canyon Ranch).
Multi-family Activity: In late spring of this year, Archstone Communities purchased 150 townhome units from Pardee Homes.
In July of this year, the property previously proposed for residential development known as Copper Creek, was purchased for $3.1 million by the City of Santa Clarita for inclusion in the City’s park and open space system. The 528-acre parcel is located on the City’s northern border with the County of Los Angeles. Land Conservation Brokerage, Inc. of San Diego and Land Advisors Organization co-listed the property. Read more: PRESS RELEASE
Source: Randy Coe, CCIM, Senior Marketing Consultant, (949) 852-8288 x18 and Michel Faris, Marketing Consultant, (949) 852-8288 x14
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