Upscale digs draw flocks of homebuyers
By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Tampa Tribune
Published: Oct 25, 2014

Residential opulence is back on the upswing in the Tampa Bay area.

After a miserable few years for many developers and builders peddling lots and homes with price tags from $500,000 to $5 million, the good life is returning.

Homes that more closely resemble palaces or family compounds are springing up again in Thonotosassa's StoneLake Ranch, a swank, 680-acre gated community bordering Hillsborough County's largest lake.

"We have 12 homes under construction right now,” said Brian Funk of HG Management LLC, the developer of StoneLake Ranch. "Over the last three years, we've had nine to 12 houses under construction. We had early success and building never came to a screeching halt, but three years ago, we sold three lots. Last year, we sold 17 lots” atop rural hills dotted with hundreds of enormous oaks and bordering serene wetlands.

At Champions' Club in Pasco County's Trinity community, the luxury home business is moving from rags to riches.

"During the three or four years of the recession, we sold almost nothing in that marketplace; closer to nothing than almost nothing,” said Lew Friedland of Adam Smith Enterprises, which is developing the gated community with a golf course designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones. In the last 18 months, he said, his company has sold 12 lots for homes ranging from $800,000 to $1 million.

Just in the past year, there has been a 52 percent increase in the number of new homes selling for upwards of $500,000 in Hillsborough County, representing 6.5 percent of all new homes closing, said Marvin Rose, who prepares the Marvin Rose Residential Reports each month for developers and builders.

"We use $500,000 as the bottom cutoff for luxury real estate. I compared new home sales for the first half of 2013 with the first half of 2014,” Rose said. "Hillsborough County in 2013 had 69 new home closings over $500,000. In 2014, there were 105.”

Rose said Pasco County had three closings in the first half of 2013 for homes over $500,000 and three during the first half of this year.

Pinellas County had 23 closings for homes over $500,000 in the first half of 2013 and 29 in the first half of this year, a 26 percent increase, Rose said. Because Pinellas County is all but built out, the numbers are never as high there as in some counties, he said.

In Manatee County, builders closed on 63 homes valued at more than $500,000 in the first half of 2013 and 110 in the first six months of this year, an increase of 75 percent. Those homes represent 10 percent of the total closings for the county, Rose said.

"Life is getting better for all of us,” Friedland said. Those buying these homes are doctors, lawyers and people looking to upgrade, he said. "There are professional baseball players and retirees.

"We are also building in the normal single-family price range, $300,000 to $450,000, and they are selling at record pace. We sold almost 200 units in 18 months,” Friedland said.

"Our market year over year is definitely on the upswing,” Funk said, with homes at StoneLake Ranch selling for $700,000 to more than $4 million.

In this location, he said, people are buying for "rural in perpetuity,” for the central location between Orlando and Pinellas County beaches and for close proximity to urban conveniences without having to live in the city.

With an average price of more than $1.2 million per home, StoneLake Ranch is drawing a particular crowd. One home has a baseball diamond in the front yard and one has a golf hole in the side yard. A number of the homes - one is 20,000 square feet - are built right on Lake Thonotosassa, while others sprawl across the rolling hills where cattle once roamed.

People moving to Stone­Lake Ranch, which includes a lake house and community boat ramp, range from small-business people who have saved for years to buy their last great home to professional hockey players, doctors, lawyers and Web designers, Funk said.

Ernie Lashlee of Custom Craft Homes, an independent franchise of Arthur Rutenberg Homes, said unlike some, his business remained fairly steady through the recession, mostly due to the locations - Madeira Beach, FishHawk Ranch and Avila. What is new is a surge in foreign buyers, Lashlee said.

"Our last three sales were to people from Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. And there was a Brazilian couple,” Lashlee said. "There is definitely an overseas market coming our way.”

Last year, Custom Craft Homes delivered 35 homes, selling for $700,000 to $1.4 million, he said.

Standard Pacific Homes, which targets the "move-up” home buyer, is selling to those looking for resort-style living in communities like Estancia and Cordoba Estates, both in Pasco County.

"People are looking for styled master baths, great rooms and large kitchens,” said its Tampa resident, Dave Bullock.

Added outdoor living space is huge in this market, he said. Buyers are also seeking high-end community assets like the "full club” Estancia offers, with an enormous pool area, water slide, weight room, concierge and more.

"Our communities aren't necessarily driven by price point but by the luxury community feel,” he said.

According to the company's 2013 annual report, Standard Pacific home sizes range from approximately 1,500 to 3,500 square feet and range in price from $165,000 to over $1 million.

Because the publicly traded Standard Pacific's third quarter report is about to be released, the company wouldn't discuss home prices or sales. But according to its second quarter report, Standard Pacific delivered 265 homes in Florida during the quarter ending June 30.

The average selling price was $368,000, according to the quarterly report - a 41 percent increase in price over the same time period in 2013.

yhammett@tampatrib.com
(813) 259-7127