The Ontario Ranch topped the Irvine Ranch as the busiest home-building site in the region. Again. – Orange County Register

In another sign the Inland Empire continues to be the region’s housing hotspot, the Ontario Ranch once again topped the Irvine Ranch as Southern California’s best-selling new home community.

For the second year in a row, John Burns Real Estate ranking Ontario Farm is the best-selling master-planned community in the region and number 6 nationwide. The Ontario community had 1,011 sales last year, down 22% from 1,292 in 2020 when they were the nation’s #5 community in terms of sales, according to development consulting from Irvine.

Irvine Co.’s Irvine Ranch. 8th place in the Burns chart with estimated sales of 950 last year – up 19% from 2020. Previously, it was the region’s best-selling home-building community in terms of sales as well. among national leaders since the end of the Great Recession.

Caitlyn Lai-Valenti, senior director of sales and marketing at Brookfield Civil, one of the project’s developers, said: “The drop in sales at the Ontario Ranch is ‘a matter of concern. hesitate “.

“Demand has been so great that we could sell more homes in 2021 if they are available,” she said. “Sometimes we are forced to pause the opening because the land development process faces delays. New home sales continue to grow rapidly – ​​so fast that supply cannot keep up.”

So why are Riverside and San Bernardino counties the right place to build the area’s new housing?

Just look at the November stats on closed sales from DQNews: Riverside County builders’ median selling price for new homes is $573,500 and San Bernardino County is $570,250 – the lowest in the six-county area where the overall median of new homes is $662,000.

That price and ample ready-to-build lot supply allowed Inland Empire builders to sell 11,313 homes in the past 12 months compared with 9,588 the year before, statistics from DQNews show. That’s an 18% increase. Builders in Los Angeles and Orange County sold 6,465 homes during the same period compared with 6,340 units – a 2% increase.

That means IE accounted for 64% of new home sales in the four counties over the past year compared with 60% in the 12 months prior. The region regained its market share of leading new home sales in the region in 2018 and is now at its highest level since 2007.

The region also dominated the housing construction of the four counties for most of the first decade of this century. It peaked at 70% of sales in 2005 before falling into the Great Recession.

PS: Also making the Burns Top 50 is Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine, which came in 23rd with 655 sales, up 13% from 580 in 2020.

PPS: Other communities in the top 10: Florida’s The Villages and Lakewood Ranch (numbers 1 and 2), Wellen Park, number 7; Las Vegas has 3 Summerlin, 5 Valley Vista, and 9 Cadence; Charlestown, SC has Cane Bay No. 4; and El Paso, Texas took 10th place with Mission Ridge.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for Southern California News Group. He can be contacted at jlansner@scng.com