Rancho Sahuarita Home Permits Up By 80% This Year

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“Builders and the public are attracted to Rancho Sahuarita for the life-style,” according to Ted Herman, Director of Real Estate at Sharpe & Associates, “we make a big effort to make residents’ lives more fun and enjoyable with a wide variety of events.” This month an eclectic community event calendar shows a car and motorcyle show, a rodeo round up day, the 6th annual father/daughter dance, speakers on financial matters and an assortment of health and fitness classes for every member of the family. Something for everyone seems to be working well there.

On February 22, 2013 Richmond American Homes (NYSE: MDC) the home building subsidiary of M.D.C. Holdings, closed on 24 finished lots, paying[mepr-show rules=”58038″]$792,000 ($33,000 per lot) for this final takedown at Presidio San Xavier. The seller, Rancho Bridge, LLC (Greg Anderson, principal) of Tucson purchased 48 lots from Pulte Homes last year and resold them to Richmond American in a two-part option agreement that began April, 2012. The lots were a mixture of 45′ x 100′ and 55′ x 100′ lots.

Dan Feig of Chapman Lindsey in Tucson represented the builder and seller in the option agreement.

In a separate transaction, Richmond American acquired an additional 77 finished lots at Presidio del Norte for $4.24 million ($55,000 per lot) from RSMC VI, LLC, an affiliate of Sharpe & Associates of Tucson (Bob Sharpe, CEO) in a cash purchase. The builder reports a completely new line of home models to be coming to these mostly 50′ x 110′ lots.

Herman reported building permits in Rancho Sahuarita are up by 80% over the past 12 months, and new home closings are up another 20% over the past 12 months. Including the 77 lots sold to Richmond American, there are 265 buildable lots in the hands of builders there, less than a 12 month inventory. Distress builders’ lots have also all been depleted, so with restricted supply and increased demand, there can subsequently be expected higher prices for both homes and land. Home foreclosures also declined by 41% from its 2010 all-time high, and distressed homes returned to lenders is down by 32% from this same period. These are all positive shifts in market perseptions that lend to an increased optimism for the future for housing in Rancho Sahuarita.

“Rancho Sahuarita’s building fees, if not the lowest in the area, are certainly very competitive,” Herman commented, “there are no impact fees as found in the City and County, another big advantage to builders in this award-winning community.” Builders such as Richmond American, Maracay Homes and DR Horton are currently building here.

In the early 1990′s, Bob Sharpe purchased an old cotton farm in a community known as Sahuarita, with the vision of creating a highly amenitized master planned community. Sharpe compiled a team to help form the Town of Sahuarita, and began the process of planning Rancho Sahuarita. This lead to a detailed development plan, which was the comprehensive guiding vision for what is now Rancho Sahuarita’s 5,100 homes, and expected to become 11,000 homes when complete.

For more information contact Ted Herman at (520) 299-8766. Dan Feig can be reached at (520) 747-4000. Bob Martin, VP Finance at Richmond American is at (720) 977-3431. Richmond American sales office can be contacted at (520) 594-6180.

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