Lakewood Ranch holds position as No. 2 selling master-planned community in mid-year rankings

Lakewood Ranch maintained its position as the No. 2 master-planned community in the country and the No. 1 multigenerational master-planned community, despite a drop in overall sales among the top 50 communities, as determined by RCLCO, a Bethesda, Maryland-based real estate consultant that compiles semi-annual and annual rankings.

The Villages, the active-adult community that straddles Sumter, Lake and Marion counties in north central Florida, maintained the top spot with 1,500 sales in the first six months of the year – a 25% drop from the first six months of 2021.

A total of 1,026 sales were made in Lakewood Ranch over the first six months this year, compared to 1,535 the first six months of 2021, a 33% drop.

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Babcock Ranch, the solar power-connected community in southeast Charlotte County came in at No. 10 nationally, with 422 home sales, which bucked a trend among the leaders with a 14% increase from the 2021 mid-year figure of 370.

Wellen Park, in North Port, ranked No. 17, with 345 home sales, a 35% drop from the 534 homes sold in the first six months of 2021.

Laura Cole, a senior vice president at Lakewood Ranch Communities LLC, said that looking back, the area benefitted from a pandemic surge in sales last year.

“Our area, Sarasota-Bradenton, and even the Tampa Bay region really got on the national radar as more of a primary destination that had vacation qualities,” Cole said. “During that period of time builders were selling and selling and selling.

“In June of last year was when sales started to turn back to pre-pandemic levels,” Cole continued, then noted that it was more of a reaction to supply chain issues and labor shortages.

“Builders put on the brakes mid last year and said, ‘We need to deliver homes and need to do it reliably.”

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Still, Cole added, Lakewood Ranch appeals to transplants because many amenities are already there.

“Because we’re a community that’s 30-plus years into our development it’s easier for folks who are relocating from other markets and uprooting their families to locate in a community that has schools and health care,” Cole said.

In an email, Rick Severance, president of Wellen Park, cited similar reasons for sales figures in that community.

"Our builders have experienced the same supply chain and labor shortages that the rest of the industry has faced,” Severance wrote. “They have focused on completing homes that were already sold before selling more – both to ensure delivery to those homebuyers who already purchased and to manage expectations with future home buyers so that proper pricing is set.”

He added that the past year has allowed time for the developer to ensure that the overall master plan is balanced with other mixed-use spaces.

“Our strategic plan always included layering in other asset classes that will result in a dynamic and multifaceted community, including Downtown Wellen,” Severance wrote. “While we are always focused on home sales, we have also been working diligently on several other fronts, including multifamily residential, commercial, healthcare, education, retail, restaurants and hotels.

“In each of these verticals, we are either under construction or contract to be open as soon as the end of this year and continuing over the next few years.

“All of this strengthens Wellen Park’s offering to prospective homebuyers.”

Downtown Wellen includes an 80-acre man-made lake. The first phase of that downtown is completely leased and under construction, with a grand opening expected as soon as early March.

In addition to that, leases have been signed for 100,000 square feet of retail and medical office space along U.S. 41 – with other medical providers contemplating locations in Downtown Wellen.

The Sarasota County School District also has sites identified for a K-8 school and a high school.

Overall, Florida-based master-planned communities represented 36% of sales among ranked communities, followed by Texas with 34%.

That is compared to an overall sales drop of 18% in mid-year sales among the top 50 communities.

In the report, RCLOC Managing Director Greg Logan and Principal Karl Pischke attributed that overall decline to continued supply chain issues and inadequate new home inventory, as well as overall price increases and interest rate hikes.

Nationally, the average price among all new single-family homes is up 15% since the middle of 2021 and more than 40% since April 2020, a time referenced as “the depths of pandemic pricing.

Interest rates have gone up 2% since the start of the year, leaving Logan and Pischke to project that short-term housing demand is likely to cool.

Cole noted that 60 to 65% of Lakewood Ranch buyers are using some sort of financing, “so mortgage rates make an awfully big difference.”

Earle Kimel primarily covers south Sarasota County for the Herald-Tribune and can be reached at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Lakewood Ranch, Wellen Park rank among top master-planned communities