Orange County’s largest homebuilders saw their biggest drop in new home sales last year.
The county’s top 30 homebuilders sold 2,948 houses and condominiums last year, down 36% from 2005 when they sold 4,574 homes and condos.
Last year’s sales decline follows a gain for builders in 2005, and is a far cry from the home sales of a decade ago, when a number of larger developments were under way across the county.
Figures were as high as 10,000 for homes and condos sold in 1997. In the 1980s, 15,000 homes and condos sold per year was the norm.
Data for this year’s list of top builders was compiled by the Costa Mesa office of Washington, D.C.-based Hanley Wood LLC.
Half of the companies on this year’s list saw a year-over-year decline in new home sales.
Detached homes saw the most pronounced decline last year. There were 1,306 detached homes sold by the homebuilders on the list in 2006, a 52% drop from a year earlier when 2,704 were sold.
Sales of condominiums and townhomes also saw a year-over-year decline, but fared better than detached homes. There were 1,642 condos and townhomes sold in 2006. That’s a 12% drop from 2005, when 1,870 were sold.
The condo market was buoyed by the onset of projects in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle and other developments, along with a number of townhome sales in more suburban locations such as Tustin.
2006 marks the first time in recent years that condo and townhomes outpaced detached homes sales, which typically sell at higher prices.
News isn’t all doom and gloom for the local housing market.
The median price of a new home was about $604,000 in late January, according to recent data from La Jolla-based market tracker DataQuick Information Systems. That’s up about 14% from a year ago.
At the same time, existing home prices are down about 1% versus a year ago, while resale condos are down nearly 3%, according to DataQuick.
Builders say last year’s declines in sales are due more to the lack of big projects under way, and a limited supply of developable land, rather than just a result of a slumping housing market.
The number of projects the top builders are working on in the county actually rose last year, up 54% to 226, according to this year’s list. A majority of those are smaller projects, rather than big, masterplanned developments.
Larger projects, such as Talega in San Clemente and Ladera Ranch, are mostly all sold out.
Meanwhile, a number of big projects in Irvine, Tustin and Anaheim are just beginning to ramp up.
Home models at Portola Springs, the 2,600-acre development along Portola Parkway near the Laguna Canyon (133) Freeway and Foothill (241) Toll Road, opened for sales in July.
Some 4,500 homes are planned for Portola Springs, the latest part of the Northern Sphere being overseen by Newport Beach-based The Irvine Company. Homes are expected to be built there during the next 10 years.
New home sales also are continuing at Tustin Legacy, the big redevelopment project at the former Marine base. Sales began in 2005, although the bulk of some 4,500 homes planned there are set to be built during the next six to eight years.
In Anaheim, the Platinum Triangle now is slated for about 7,500 homes and condos. Only a few hundred sales have been made there so far, though projects are beginning to ramp up in earnest.
La Jolla-based Windstar Communities LLC was the big newcomer to the list, thanks to the Platinum Triangle. The company sold 128 homes at its Stadium Lofts development in Anaheim, its first big project in the county, placing it at No. 9 on the list.
Windstar’s Stadium Lofts, a project of 390 condos, was the first development to begin sales in the area. It also was one of the more affordable projects that saw sales here last year. Of the company’s sales, 75 were for homes in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, the most of any builder on the list for that price range.
Also looming large: El Toro, the 3,700-acre former Marine base in Irvine that is expected to see close to 9,500 homes. Sales there are expected to begin next year, according to officials with the Aliso Viejo office of Miami-based Lennar Corp.
The Villages of Columbus, the 2,000-home development being built at Tustin Legacy by Lennar and Newport Beach’s William Lyon Homes Inc., helped the homebuilders land the top two spots on this year’s list.
No. 1 Lennar, which was No. 6 on last year’s list, saw a big jump in sales in 2006,a 71% increase from a year ago. The company sold 443 homes, with sales split between detached and attached homes. The sales figures gave Lennar 11% of the market share. Lennar also was the homebuilder that sold the most homes in the $700,000 or more range. Lennar sold 213 homes in that price range. The company’s sales were almost split between homes below and above $700,000.
Expect to see Lennar, a relative newcomer to the local market, to remain near the top of the list in the future.
The builder is the driving force behind the redevelopment of El Toro. It also has plans for nearly 3,000 homes at the Platinum Triangle, and is well under way at its Central Park West development in Irvine, where 1,400 homes and condos are planned. Lennar now is working on 20 different projects in the county, compared to eight a year ago.
William Lyon came in at No. 2 again, even though local home sales fell 59% to 266 from a year ago.
Condos and townhomes made up two thirds of the now privately held company’s sales last year.
In July, Gen. William Lyon, chairman and chief executive of the homebuilder, completed a buyout of the company to take it private for about $940 million.
Another company seeing a change in ownership, John Laing Homes, saw an 84% drop in sales last year to 106 homes sold. The Newport Beach-based company was No. 1 on 2006’s list but slipped to the No. 11 spot this year.
John Laing was bought for $1.1 billion in June by Emaar Properties of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
