Large-scale housing projects continued to make headway in 2017 and the early part of 2018. The existing single-family home market in Pahrump also saw median home prices rise during the same period.
The Mountain Falls housing development, near the southern edge of town, has been moving along. The development had roughly 1,000 homes already completed at the site, with 600 lots already approved by subdivision maps, former Nye County Planning Director Darrell Lacy estimated in the early part of 2018.
At build-out, Mountain Falls is expected to have over 3,200 homes by the project’s developer William Lyon Homes. An array of neighborhoods has been built at the site. Some developments starting to come to life in early 2018 included an age-qualified community, Ovation at Mountain Falls.
Other projects in the area include the Burson Ranch by Beazer Homes and Artesia—which had worked into a positive path.
“We’ve gone from nothing happening to a lot of new construction,” said Linda Groover of Groover Realty. Linda and her husband specialize in sales in the Artesia subdivision and practice in real estate sales in the Pahrump area. The duo has worked more than two decades in the Southern Nevada region.
In general, development around the valley was on the rise through 2017, commercial and residential. And new projects were being pegged to change the landscape of the area in the early part of 2018.
Several new commercial buildings were completed, including the new Tractor Supply Co. retail store, HealthCare Partners’ new 57,000-square-foot building and the new Jack in the Box restaurant that sits along Highway 160.
Spring Mountain Motor Resort &Country Club is also making headway on its major residential and commercial project planned to bring a hotel, casino, retail stores and a movie theater.
Two commercial developments that border the Artesia at Hafen Ranch housing project gained approval in Nye County for a tentative map in the first part of 2018. The two projects that total roughly more than 13 acres could bring things such as a grocery store and shopping center to the Artesia area, on the south side of town.
The project is part of the Artesia subdivision, according to documents obtained from Nye County.
Artesia and Pahrump market
Homebuyers from California are moving to the area to avoid the high taxes in their home state, with others moving away from the Golden State as natural disasters of all types have become a growing issue, Groover said.
Las Vegas commuters are also part of the homebuyers in the Pahrump area, along with newcomers from Washington state and Oregon, she added.
Phase 5 of Artesia, the final phase of the subdivision that sees mostly custom and semi-custom home construction, had five homes built at the site as of March 2018, with seven builders actively working on projects in the Artesia development in the first quarter of 2018.
Groover, who said there were 165 undeveloped lots at the time, was looking at putting together a deal for the sale of all the lots to Las Vegas homebuilders in the early part of 2018.
Much of the intensity in the local housing market, sales and construction, began to brew in 2017, with new homes selling before reaching completion, she said.
Many lots have yet to be developed by owners who have already purchased in Artesia, according to Groover.
Another phenomenon in the area has been the rise in the value of lots in Artesia, which had hit between $5,000 and $10,000 per acre during the downturn. Today, lots have moved up to $35,000 to $40,000.
In fact, a corner lot in Artesia brought $50,000 in 2018, Groover said.
Steve Groover of Groover Realty said Las Vegas homebuilders could start to become more interested in the Pahrump area as the availability of land has become more scarce in the neighboring valley.
The price per acre for land in the Las Vegas area has also risen, which could drive homebuilders to Pahrump, Linda Goover said.
New home sales at Mountain Falls
Home sales in both Mountain Falls series have also been on the rise.
In Mountain Falls’ Series I and Series II developments, William Lyon reported 73 homes were sold in 2017, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by the company. That compares to 2016s 77 homes sold in the two series—a decrease of just over 5.2 percent.
The number of reported sales in 2017, however, was more than double the 29 homes sold some five years earlier in 2013 in the two series, William Lyon reported to the SEC. It should be noted that Series II didn’t open for sales until 2014 when four homes were sold from Series II.
In addition to the age-qualified community, Ovation, Mountain Falls was expecting to open other neighborhoods in the development. On the project’s website, it announced its Villagio and Paradiso developments would be coming soon.
The Ventano community at Mountain Falls had a grand opening at the end of February. In William Lyon’s SEC annual 2017 filing, the community was noted to have 166 available lots to build on with prices ranging from $195,500 to $223,500, offering four floor plans. No sales data was available at the time of this writing.
Existing homes have also experienced positives in the valley.
The median price on existing homes in the Pahrump area hit $219,938 in February 2018. That included all transactions recorded through the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors’ multiple listing service (MLS).
In February 2017, the median price for homes sold in the area sat at $174,950—more than 25 percent lower than 2018’s numbers.
Contact reporter Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com