Century Communities Buys Houston Land Amid Home-Building Frenzy

A single-family development will grow near Galveston as builders look to take advantage of the limited housing supply and returning buyer demand.

Century Communities purchased about 46 acres in La Marque, 15 miles south of Houston. The property, located off Main Street and a short drive from Interstate 45, was sold by a local investor.

A Colliers team of Harrison Kane, Chris Hutcheson and James Kadlick represented the seller.

As homebuilders resume production after a temporary slowdown due to rising mortgage rates, eligible land is hard to find. Particularly for small homebuilders, competition from large builders like Lennar and DR Horton has made it increasingly difficult to acquire land ready for development.

“Houston is still undersupplied with lots and the secondary market is stuck because of interest rates,” Kane said.

La Marque is located 4 miles north of Galveston. Although it hasn’t grown at the same rate as other Texas Triangle suburbs, La Marque’s population grew 4.2% between 2020 and 2022, to about 19,000 residents, according to data from the census.

Although mortgage and interest rates remain high, homebuilder stocks have recovered over the past year. Shares of the S&P Homebuilders ETF that track the performance of homebuilders are up 13% over the past year.

Century Communities is based in Colorado but builds in 18 states. About 17 percent of the company’s 10,000 home deliveries last quarter took place in Texas, and the Lone Star State accounted for $500 million of its revenue, according to its most recent public filings. Earlier this month, the company began selling an 80-unit complex in Fort Worth. Since 2021, its stock price has almost doubled to $84.44.

Elsewhere in the Texas Triangle, DFW Land Real Estate has embarked on a land-buying spree. It added 71 acres in Prosper to its portfolio earlier this week and has purchased 1,600 acres in Dallas-Fort Worth since 2012.