Enthusiastically on the Rise
Lack of Land? Not a chance!
The Kansas City metro area is bursting with numerous new home communities in which to build. The choice is yours.
Story by Ann Butenas
If you are in the market to have a new home built in the Kansas City area soon, then 2018 is the year to pursue such a dream. The new home construction industry in the metro area has been quite busy and promises to continue that exciting upward momentum indefinitely. We are blessed to have such a wonderful pool of high-quality and award-winning builders from which to choose in this town, each one offering unique designs and styles at all price points. No matter what you might require in a new home or even the neighborhood in which you desire to live, there is no shortage of builders standing at the ready to meet your needs.
In fact, one of your greatest challenges may simply rest in having to decide with which builder to work, followed by where to break ground. The Kansas City housing market has a vast menu of exciting new home communities at multiple price points with myriad amenities from which to choose, and we are confident you will quickly find a place to call your own.
“There is definitely room to grow here in Kansas City,” noted Brett Miller, Managing Partner of Content Media, publisher of Kansas City Homes & Style. “This is a little big city that is widely spread out, giving many opportunities to develop new home communities at many points North, South, East and West.”
As one of Kansas City Homes & Style magazine’s continually running Top Homes Builders, Jim Lambie of Lambie Custom Homes, sees this as more than good news. It’s simply just part of his daily agenda. While recently discussing the growing new home construction market in the area, Lambie was simultaneously hard at work on yet another of his one-of-a-kind home designs. With the high demand for custom homes, coupled with plentiful available land on which to develop and build, there is rarely a dull moment for Lambie.
“There are definitely lots of choices out there,” Lambie asserted. “We are seeing growth in many areas, too. Builders and developers are busy and there are plenty of new communities in the planning stages now.”
Lambie assured us that land acquisitions by developers are always in the works, most notably in southern Johnson County along the 175th Street corridor leading into the Spring Hill area.
“Developers have bought up a lot of ground and there is plenty of property available,” said Lambie, who emphasized the popular demand of larger lots. “Many people are looking for three to five acre lots, and the county (Johnson County) is working with developers to implement this area of growth.”
With over 40 years of experience in the new home construction arena, Lambie shows no signs of putting on the brakes and currently has his hands in multiple developments, such as The Reserve at Meadowbrook, The Enclave at Prairie Star and The Enclave at Cedar Point.
“We build at all price points, from $280,000 up and through several million dollars,” indicated Lambie, whose gallery includes single family homes, multifamily homes, as well as commercial and property development projects. Lambie Custom Homes builds in maintenance-provided communities, on golf course lots, in varying communities and on acreage. Undoubtedly, it will be quite some time before Lambie will don his retirement cap.
“There are still lots of places out there to build a new home,” he stated. In addition to seeing appreciable growth in southern Johnson County, Lambie pointed a finger West towards Lenexa and Olathe.
“We are seeing continued growth in those areas, as well,” he said, referring the 80 townhomes he has built at Lenexa City Center. “Cottonwood Canyon and Cedar Creek are also growing. Developers have recently acquired 3,000 acres next to Cedar Creek for additional growth.”
In essence, if you inquire of Lambie, he’ll tell you the options for building a new home are plentiful.
Josh Clark, Executive Vice President of the Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City (HBA), concurs and can easily assuage most anyone’s concern that available land on which to build a new home is far from limited.
“There is plenty of land available in the Kansas City area,” he emphasized. “The top areas for new construction growth currently include Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs, Kansas City (MO), Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, and Shawnee. This includes all price points. We can also include the Edgerton and Gardner areas, as communities there are also seeing growth. The HBA’s Spring Parade of Homes, which is April 28-May 13, is an excellent time to view many of these new communities as they are being built.”
Additionally, Clark drew attention to parts of Prairie Village and Leawood, where new communities may not be in development, but new home construction is equally on full throttle in a different type of venue.
“Those are areas where higher-end customers are purchasing older homes and tearing them down to construct new ones,” he said.
In terms of its membership, the HBA has 260 builder members, most of which are homegrown builders, not national entities, as consumers here demand more customized options. The new home growth in the metro area has also accounted for a positive effect on the local economy.
“Our members employ over 20,000 individuals in the Kansas City market and have contributed over $1.5 billion to the local economy,” emphasized Clark.
In keeping pace with this exciting news, Kansas City Homes & Style has introduced a maps and communities listing in every issue printed and on its website that essentially does the leg work of looking for these new communities for you.
“Digitally, viewers on our website can click on a community page and on an advertised subdivision and, thanks to the power of Google, it will automatically map them to that subdivision from wherever they are,” explained Miller. “We also expanded our print Communities section to include maps and community listings, as you can see here in this issue.”
Much like the new home communities blooming all over the metro area, this feature is also an exciting work in progress.
“Stay tuned for further developments, as this feature will continue to grow,” smiled Miller.
