The final parcel needed to complete the Serenity Pointe Master Plan south of Parker has fallen into place, according to Walton Global, a real estate investment company based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Walton Global said in a news release Thursday that it had acquired a 52-acre parcel called Serenity North in Elbert County, which brings the size of the master-planned community to 374 acres.
“Serenity North is an exciting addition to the Serenity Pointe Master Plan, as well as the greater region,” Anthony Ybarra, vice president of land for Walton Global in Colorado, California, Arizona and Texas, said in a release. “We see great opportunity for growth and expansion surrounding Denver, and this latest acquisition affirms our commitment to the area.”
Walton Global, founded in 1979, manages about $3.4 billion in real estate holdings on behalf of investors from more than 82 countries. Last year, the company reported holding more than 79,000 acres of land in the United States, including 3,038 in Colorado.
It assembled and sold 1,262 acres in Banning Lewis Ranch in Colorado Springs, as well as 331 acres in the Piney Lake Master Plan in Douglas County. It has 178 acres available for sale in the Peak View Master Plan in Weld County and another 111 acres at Silver Peak near Lochbuie. In Loveland, it has 254 acres at the Taft Ridge Master Plan and 245 acres at the Lee Farms Master Plan. It has 208 acres in Dacono, as well as a few other land parcels along the northern Front Range.
Serenity Pointe will be about a tenth of the size of Sterling Ranch, one of the state’s largest active master-planned communities, and a little over a third of the size of Central Park, Denver’s largest neighborhood that is expected to reach completion in 2025.
The land in Elbert County is currently zoned for agricultural uses and the development will concentrate on single-family homes. No estimate was available for how many homes are planned. The community will be close to Parker and Interstate 25, and will market its commuter access to both Colorado Springs and metro Denver.
Zillow estimates the metro Denver region is about 70,000 homes short of what it needs to accommodate about 97,000 “missing” households, primarily those who are doubling up with other households to have a place to live. Despite the severe shortfall, neighborhood opponents in cities like Englewood have pushed back against denser development, which could force more construction onto raw land on the periphery.
A slowdown in new home starts has caused the number of available lots to surge by 65.4% in the United States in the first quarter, according to Zonda, a real estate research firm. Lot supply is up 159% in Boise, Idaho; 134.9% in Salt Lake City, and 98% in Portland, Oregon.
But by historical standards, lot supply remains tight, and the uptick in inventory could be short-lived as demand for new homes comes back, Zonda chief economist Ali Wolf said in a research note last month.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported a 21.7% jump this week in the annualized rate of privately owned housing starts in May from April, defying expectations of a further slowing due to higher mortgage rates. New homes account for about three in 10 of all home sales, compared to one in 10 historically.
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