Grand Parkway fuels home sales surge in Cypress

​CYPRESS – Builders are monitoring costs and buyers are looking for deals on new homes as Houston’s economy continues to sputter amid low oil prices and increasing layoffs.

Despite the slump, officials from Bridgeland recently said sales in the master-planned community are up 64 percent this year.

In April alone, builders sold 51 homes, a near-record month for the ten-year-old community in Cypress.

The reason for the uptick?

Bridgeland vice president Peter Houghton said it’s the newly opened Grand Parkway, a public school campus opening next year and recently completed amenities like pools and parks.

The community is experiencing a bit of a comeback.

Several years ago, activity there stalled, and some builders pulled out before the developer received a wetlands permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2014, allowing it to move forward on putting lots on an additional 800 acres.

Construction on the development started in 2006. Some 2,800 homes have been built, and 2,700 are occupied. About 19,000 are planned altogether. Single-family homes start at $230,000 and reach $1 million.

But not all is rosy.

Higher-end homes aren’t selling as fast as they did during the boom, and land sales are softer as well.

During the first three months of the year, Bridgeland sold slightly less land to builders and at a lower price than it did in the same period in 2015, the company said in a recent financial filing.

The lower prices were a result of the lot mix sold during that time.

There was a larger percentage of smaller, lower-priced lots sold than last year.

Bridgeland has the same developer as The Woodlands. It will have some similar attributes, including a town center designed to house shopping centers, hotels and office towers.