KVIG Informative

Homebuilders just paid some of the highest land prices in Summerlin’s history — again. The reason isn’t just demand. It’s that Summerlin is now one of the only places left in the Las Vegas Valley where a builder can still buy a double-digit-acre lot.

Howard Hughes Holdings sold roughly 63 acres combined to three homebuilders for almost $109 million, with per-acre prices ranging from just over $1.7 million to $1.8 million, according to Clark County property records. The sales closed as part of a broader pattern: during the first half of this year, Summerlin’s developer sold land to four different homebuilders at average values of $1.7 million per acre or higher in every deal.

By comparison, the average price homebuilders paid for land across all of Southern Nevada last year was about $954,200 per acre, according to Home Builders Research. Summerlin’s prices are running nearly double the region-wide average.

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Vince Hildreth of the Land Advisors Organization said it has become increasingly difficult for homebuilders to find a 10- or even 20-acre plot anywhere in the Las Vegas area for a new project, and that Summerlin remains one of the few places builders can still acquire larger tracts of land.

The sales cluster followed an even larger transaction in July, when Howard Hughes Holdings sold 216.4 acres off Town Center Drive and Tropicana Avenue for $135 million to Pulte Homes and Toll Brothers, who plan to build 561 single-family homes along with parks, a recreational center and a guard-gated entry.

Summerlin spans 22,500 acres along the Las Vegas Valley’s western rim and has long ranked among the top-selling master-planned communities in the country for homebuilders, a status that keeps land prices elevated even as the broader housing market cools.

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When builders pay record land prices, those costs typically flow directly into the price of the finished home — meaning Summerlin’s record land values this year are likely to show up in the asking price of whatever gets built on them next.

Howard Hughes Holdings controls land other developers simply can’t get anymore, and builders are paying accordingly. Every record-setting per-acre price this year is a signal of how little large-scale developable land is actually left in the Las Vegas Valley outside the boundaries Howard Hughes already owns.