Just as single-family home sales and construction boomed in 2020, master planned communities did as well, experiencing 40% increases in average sales. According to RCLCO Real Estate Advisors, the top 50 master planned communities also experienced a 20% increase in total new-home sales. Once again, The Villages in Florida won the top spot for top-selling master planned communities of 2020. This retiree-focused community has been at the top for years, but the second top seller, Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota, Fla., is the top-selling community for multigenerational living. Lakewood Ranch experienced a 30% increase in sales from 2019 to 2020, as The Villages only saw a 1% increase.
Every year since 1994, RCLCO has conducted a national survey identifying the top-selling master-planned communities (MPCs) through a rigorous search of high-performing communities in each state. For this 2020 report, we have surveyed MPCs throughout the country to establish the rankings following the release of the Top-Selling Master-Planned Communities of Mid-Year 2020. Also in this issue, we discuss the impacts that COVID-19 has had on the for-sale housing industry, and how RCLCO’s projection in last year’s Top-Selling MPC Advisory, forecasting a decade of abundant opportunities for MPC development, is affirmed by this year’s performance.
The 50 Top-Selling Master-Planned Communities in 2020 experienced total sales about 20% higher than in 2019, and communities in this year’s Top-50 report for which sales data was available in 2019 had an average increase in sales of 40% in 2020! Sales within the Top-10 MPCs were over 12% higher than their 2019 counterparts.
