The Villages, an active adult community in the Orlando area with 2,307 sales, was 2011’s top-selling U.S. Master Planned Community (MPC) according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting. The Villages was the top seller in our 2010 survey as well, with 2,208 sales. Other MPC’s in the top five for 2011 included two in the Houston area (Cinco Ranch and The Woodlands), Irvine Ranch in Southern California, and Alamo Ranch in San Antonio. Eight of this year’s 10 top-selling projects were also on the top 10 list last year, with two new additions – Alamo Ranch and Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota.

The following is our ranking of the 50 top-selling U.S. master plans in 2011:

Our survey of 188 home building executives last month turned up a very interesting, and disturbing, finding. More builders are shying away from selling homes to Vets because VA appraisers have become so conservative that the homes rarely close. In addition, the low appraisals impact the value of future community sales, costing the builders significant money. Particularly disturbing are some of the VA procedures that make it difficult to challenge mistakes, as well as the impact the appraisals are having on other homes available for sale in the community. All of the builders we spoke with love selling homes to Vets, but many have grown so frustrated with the process that it is becoming financially questionable to continue.

There is no better time to find talent than today, so we are making a big addition to our management team, adding Carl Reichardt Jr. as our new Managing Director of Research. Carl will help translate all of the great research we already do into great decisions for each of our clients, and make sure we continue to identify and analyze new housing trends so our clients stay many steps ahead of the competition. For those of you who only receive these free emails, feel free to contact Holly to learn about all additional insight you could get as a client.