List

List/16/dt1st/mark2nd By JENNIFER NETHERBY Staff Reporter Cheap land and lots of it that sums up the lure of the Santa Clarita Valley for homebuilders. Twelve of the greater San Fernando Valley’s 15 top homebuilders have new residential developments in the Santa Clarita Valley. And an onslaught of new developers is coming to the Valley to tap into the North County’s open land. The list was compiled by the Meyers Group, a real estate information firm based in Irvine, which ranked homebuilders by the number of homes sold in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys in 1998. “In the recovery of the economy, the main difference between the late ’80s and now is, the San Fernando Valley has less new home projects. At one time there were 70 (projects), now there are under 20,” said Bob Bray, marketing director of the Meyers Group. “Builders go where the land is, and that’s the Santa Clarita Valley.” Of course, availability of land is only one part of the equation. There is ample open space in the Antelope Valley, but that market is growing far more slowly than the Santa Clarita area. The Antelope Valley was hard hit during the recession in the early ’90s, and the boom in the Santa Clarita Valley market is slowing its recovery, Bray said. Homebuilders in the Santa Clarita area are still able to sell homes at attractive price ranges, which means fewer people are being forced to the Antelope Valley in search of cheaper homes. The cost of building in the Antelope Valley is prohibitive as well. Because of a lack of infrastructure, it costs builders more to prepare lots than they can make on sales, Bray said. Nonetheless, the area is showing signs of a comeback; it reported an increase in first-quarter sales for the first time since the late 1980s. And if home prices continue to rise in the Santa Clarita Valley, it could force people to look in the Antelope Valley. In the San Fernando Valley, aside from Porter Ranch, most of the home developments are smaller, infill projects. The number of homes built in 1998 fell for many developers compared to the previous year. Bray explained that developers have been forced to hunt for land, so home supply was down. Kaufman and Broad Home Corp. topped the list with 226 home sales in the Valley in 1998, down from 273 in 1997. The company’s main projects include K & B; at Karey Ranch in Sylmar, K & B; at East Palmdale and two developments in Lancaster. No. 2 on the list is Pacific Bay Homes, with 214 home sales up from 101 in 1997. Its main projects include Heritage at Canyon Country, Pacific Grove in Santa Clarita and several other Santa Clarita developments. Lennar Homes, which topped last year’s list, dropped to No. 4 this year with 187 homes sold, roughly half its 394 sales last year. The list contains a number of newcomers who just entered the market last year, attracted by the strong Santa Clarita market. “Clearly, residential homebuilders are confident the Santa Clarita Valley will continue to have a healthy market,” Bray said. John Laing Homes, one of the new builders on this year’s list, just started development in Los Angeles County in late 1997. The company ranked No. 13, with 60 homes sold in 1998. “There’s a lot of room up here for development,” said Dannetta Brunelli, sales and marketing assistant with John Laing. The company has developments in Sylmar, Valencia and Simi Valley and will begin another development in Stevenson’s Ranch in the coming months, as well as other projects in Ventura County, Brunelli said. Other companies new to this year’s list are EPAC Communities with 131 sales in the region, Braemar Homes with 78, Granite Homes with 74, Shea Homes with 71 and Curtis Communities with 56.