Tri Pointe Homes will serve as the lead developer for Evergrove, a new master-planned community in Richmond featuring 45- to 80-foot homesites.
The community is a joint venture with Toll Brothers, which will build five collections of single-family homes within the community. The builder’s offerings will range from 1,880 to over 6,100 square feet.
“We are thrilled to unveil a variety of new home collections coming soon to Evergrove, a new master-planned community designed to inspire and elevate the lifestyle of our home shoppers,” Brian Murray, president of Toll Brothers’ Houston division, said in a press release. “With its exceptional location, modern home designs and outstanding amenities, Evergrove will offer the best in luxury living.”
Tri Pointe’s offerings, meanwhile, will range from 2,558 to 5,316 square feet with four to five bedrooms and three to 5.5 bathrooms.
Pricing at Evergrove will start in the mid-$400,000s and extend to the mid-$900,000s. Planned community amenities include a fitness center and fishing pond.
Evergrove is located at 6023 Sunset Grove Loop. The community is zoned to Lamar Consolidated Independent School District.
Homebuilder confidence started the new year on a soft note, as buyers remained constrained by affordability issues despite mortgage rates hitting a three-year low.
Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes slid to 37 in January, down two points from December, the National Association of Home Builders reported, citing the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).
“While the upper end of the housing market is holding steady, affordability conditions are taking a toll on the lower and mid-range sectors,” said NAHB Chairman Buddy Hughes, a homebuilder and developer from Lexington, North Carolina. “Buyers are concerned about high home prices and mortgage rates, with downpayments particularly challenging given elevated price-to-income ratios.”
On a positive note, the average 30-year mortgage rate fell to 6.06% as of Jan. 15, its lowest rate in three years and almost 1% below the same period last year, NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz said.
Most responses to the homebuilder survey were received before the announcement that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would purchase $200 billion of mortgage-backed securities in an effort to further trim borrowing costs, NAHB noted.
The HMI gauging future sales expectations fell three points to 49, while the component measuring current sales conditions fell one point to 41, and the index charting prospective-buyer traffic fell three points to 23.
“The future sales component of the HMI dipped below 50 for the first time since September, indicating that builders continue to face several issues that include labor and lot shortages as well as elevated regulatory and material costs,” Dietz said.
The survey also found that 40% of respondents reported cutting prices in January, the same level as December.This marks the thirdconsecutivemonth since May 2020 that the share has been 40% or higher, NAHB said. The average price reduction rose to 6% from 5% in December, while the use of sales incentives was 65%, the 10th consecutive month above 60%.
Regionally, the three-month averages for the HMI scores were mixed, with the Midwest flat at 43, the Northeast dropping two points to 45, the South sliding a point to 35, and the West rising one point to 35.
Each month, NAHB/Wells Fargo surveys builders, asking them to rate single-family home sales over the next six months as good, fair or poor. It also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective homebuyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores are then calculated, and any number above 50 indicates that more builders view market conditions as good/high than poor/low.
“Overall, the California housing market hasn’t shown signs of any major shifts since the government shutdown kicked off,” says Realtor.com® senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones. “New listing activity is up year over year, time on market is stable, and inventory growth is decelerating, holding with recent trends.”
It’s a striking finding given how exposed California could be. The state ranks sixth nationwide for both FHA and VA loan volume, ninth for total USDA housing investments, and sixth for the number of active National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policies—all federal programs now halted or critically delayed as the shutdown enters its third week.
It’s also significant because of California’s sheer scale: Real estate makes up 17.6% of California’s economy, contributing roughly $680 billion to the state’s GDP and supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs across construction, real estate, and home services, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
But resilience has its limits, and the longer the shutdown lingers, the more pressure builds.
“Each day the shutdown continues compounds these challenges,” writes NAR Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy Officer Shannon McGhan.
“For millions of Americans, it means uncertainty about closing dates, delayed access to affordable housing, and higher costs as markets react to instability,” she adds. “For the broader economy, it risks slowing growth in one of the country’s most important sectors.”
California’s calm
So far, the data signals stability for the Golden State.
New listings are up compared with a year ago, time on market is largely unchanged, and inventory growth continues to slow in line with national trends. That steadiness reflects who’s driving California’s market—and how they buy.
Most borrowers in the state rely on conforming loans, which haven’t been disrupted by the federal shutdown, while cash and jumbo buyers remain active in expensive metros like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose.
“Buyer demand remains intact in California, as high-income, cash and jumbo buyers, who tend to be common in high-priced California metros, aren’t directly affected by furloughs,” explains Jones.
That activity highlights a key portion of the federal government that still is working, despite the shutdown: the IRS’ Income Verification Express Service (IVES), which allows lenders to verify borrowers’ tax information and keep mortgage approvals moving.
Curtis Knuth, CEO of credit reporting and verification firm Service 1st, says that his company has seen no disruption in delivery of the thousands of tax transcripts it requests from the IRS each week as part of the mortgage vetting process.
“For the divisions that we work with, there’s no impact,” he tells Realtor.com. “Normal turn times are standing.”
Knuth explains that the IVES is self-funded by user fees, and thus does not require a new spending bill from Congress to continue normal operations.
Lisa Binkley, the COO of Service 1st, says that about 97% of tax transcript requests through IVES are currently getting processed within three days, on par with turnaround times before the shutdown.
For homebuyers, it’s a spot of bright news as the government shutdown drags on with no end in sight.
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Early signs of strain among government-backed loans
But beneath that surface of calm, early fractures are forming.
“I’ve seen a small cooling over the past couple of weeks in buyer enthusiasm, particularly for first-time buyers using FHA or USDA financing,” says Bastien Wissmann, a New Properties & Investment Specialist.
While these sales make up a small portion of California’s real estate, the scale or importance of these programs shouldn’t be underestimated. In June 2025 alone, California buyers took out $1.9 billion in FHA loans—the third-highest volume in the nation, according to HUD’s Single-Family Portfolio Snapshot.
While fewer than 1% of California homebuyers rely on USDA loans, those who do often have few alternatives. And since 2024, the state has received nearly $20 billion in USDA funding for single- and multifamily housing, ranking ninth nationally for total investment.
Unlike conforming loans, these programs rely on federal staffing and approvals, both of which are now frozen. “The lack of clarity about government operations breeds caution, even among qualified buyers who would otherwise be eager to move ahead,” Wissmann says.
Sellers, meanwhile, are adjusting rather than retreating. “Most are willing to extend the closing process a little longer or notch prices down slightly to keep deals chugging along, an acknowledgment of caution and optimism,” Wissmann adds.
“Builders and developers are beginning to complain about the slower processing of permits and inspections,” says Wissmann. “These small delays can cause ripples throughout projects, especially for multiunit residential developments.”
While many permits are issued from local authorities, sometimes those authorities need federal coordination to move the process forward.
“Right now, the impact has been minimal, but the longer the shutdown goes, the more those reviews and permitting procedures are going to start clogging up,” Russel Riggs, senior regulatory representative for NAR, told Realtor.com last week. “After four weeks, you’ll really start seeing the impacts very clearly.”
As we near the four-week mark in the shutdown, Gary Mkrtichyan, a developer and general contractor with Opus Builders in Los Angeles, says he’s run into significant delays since the start of October.
He’s currently overseeing several new-home projects in Hollywood that require city-managed infrastructure, everything from sewer connections to fire hydrant relocations. But recently, even routine requests have gone unanswered.
“I’ve never seen this type of slow movement,” he says.
For developers, those delays can come with costly consequences.
“I’ve paid close to $20,000 that went to waste because they can’t move efficiently and give us what we need to get our projects going,” Mkrtichyan says.
A hidden flood risk
It’s been widely reported that the lapse of the National Flood Insurance Program has put 4.7 million policies at risk at the height of hurricane season. But in California, there’s an added danger.
In wildfire-scarred regions, burned hillsides become more vulnerable to floods—without vegetation, the ground can’t absorb rainfall, heightening the risk of flooding even for properties that are outside of designated Special Flood Hazard Areas.
FEMA estimates that flood risk remains significantly higher for at least five years after a major wildfire. Yet only about 4% of homes in wildfire-affected states carry federal flood insurance, leaving most owners—and many new buyers—exposed as federal coverage stalls.
Less than a year after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires, that’s an especially serious problem for Californians still rebuilding. With the NFIP stalled amid the federal shutdown, no new or renewed policies can be issued.
For buyers in high-risk areas, that bureaucratic pause can bring home closings to a sudden halt.
“If the shutdown lingers, home sales could see delays related to insurance. For homes needing a new/renewed flood insurance policy, the suspension of the NFIP puts closings at risk and slows down transaction activity,” explainsJones.
The lag effect: When stability turns
For now, California’s housing data looks calm, but in a market this interconnected, the effects of a freeze as extended or expansive as this one are unlikely to stay invisible for long. The real risks come later, as the slowdown ripples through listings, loans, and sentiment.
“If homes sit for longer due to issues with mortgage loan approval or insurance challenges, delistings or price reductions may increase,” says Jones. “This is especially relevant if consumer sentiment shifts or anxiety over the shutdown increases, which could convince some buyers to hold off.”
The real estate industry makes up roughly 18% of California’s $4.1 trillion economy—nearly one-sixth of the entire U.S. GDP. Each median-priced home sale generates about $230,000 in local economic activity and supports three jobs, from contractors and appraisers to movers and furniture retailers, according to research from NAR.
California’s stability may be masking a lag effect—a market that looks steady on the surface but could start showing cracks in the coming weeks. If that happens, the state’s housing slowdown won’t stay local for long.
Last December, Mayor Karen Bass moved to speed up the production of affordable housing in Los Angeles by issuing Executive Directive 1. This measure streamlines the approval of new multi-unit residences by exempting them from the usual slate of hearings, appeals and environmental reviews. The city Planning Commission voted this month to continue ED1, bringing the directive one step closer to becoming permanent.
On its face, this is the sort of bold housing policy Los Angeles needs. The city is not building nearly enough units to meet demand. In fact, an LAist analysis found that from 2010 to 2019, the city lost eight times more homes that were affordable for low-income residents than it gained.
This has partly been due to developers being deterred by lengthy, expensive and risky approval processes for new construction. On its face, ED1 is helping to chip away at that problem: The Department of City Planning reported that, as of the end of October, it had approved more than 50 new developments under the directive and had 55 other applications pending, projecting the addition of 12,383 new affordable homes.
But absent from this success story is the way this directive is reshaping the character and makeup of Los Angeles’ working-class neighborhoods and displacing longtime residents. In her effort to permanently streamline the construction of affordable housing, Mayor Bass is asking the city to weigh in on a bigger question: Who gets to live in Los Angeles?
According to our analysis of city data, in ED1’s first 10 months, more than a third of new developments filed under the directive have been in South Los Angeles, an area with one of the highest concentrations of Angelenos living in poverty. We also found that one-third of those South L.A. developments require the demolition of existing affordable housing, eliminating at least 62 rent-stabilized units in the area and displacing hundreds of residents, many of whom cannot afford to move elsewhere in their neighborhood or the city. Under the streamlined process, tenants have mere months to find new homes. We’ve talked to many such residents who fear they will become homeless.
It’s also worth noting where ED1 developments aren’t happening. In June 2023, Mayor Bass revised the directive to exclude parcels zoned for single-family homes — which initially made up more than half of approved projects, according to an analysis by Abundant Housing.
This change came after the city planning department heard “feedback” from residents it surveyed as well as members of the City Council concerned about apartment buildings “plunked down in the middle of single family neighborhoods.” This exemption prevents the city from streamlining the construction of affordable housing in these “higher-resource areas” with the least density. It also makes multifamily residential zones more of a target for developers.
If L.A.’s wealthy neighborhoods are preserved at the expense of low-income ones, we will all feel the consequences: rising rents as the number of rent-stabilized units continues to shrink; an increase in homelessness, especially for seniors and renters on fixed incomes who have no other housing options available; less diversity in Los Angeles as residents in the affected neighborhoods, which are predominantly Black and brown, scatter outside the city to afford rent; and more traffic as families have to relocate farther from their schools and jobs.
Los Angeles urgently needs more affordable housing, and streamlining the development process is a necessary step. But city leaders need to be mindful of what may be destroyed if the approach is not equitable. Before making ED1 permanent, the city should exempt rent-stabilized units from the streamlining process so that a more thorough assessment can take place and tenants have more time to consider their options. The city should further ensure that developers — even those pursuing 100% affordable housing projects, some of which may technically be exempt — comply with the obligations for relocation, right of return and right to remain under California’s Housing Crisis Act of 2019.
Displaced tenants also should receive more robust relocation services, including help securing comparable replacement housing in the same area. Under the current process, the city provides a list of potential housing providers and tenants are burdened with the search for affordable units.
Finally, single-family homes should not be exempt from streamlining. Such an exemption reflects the sort of NIMBY position that got us into this affordable housing crisis in the first place. It will only reinforce the inequity that has shaped housing policy in Los Angeles as affluent neighborhoods remain relatively sheltered from change while low-income neighborhoods are dismantled for the sake of growth.
Los Angeles’ leaders must consider the unintended consequences ED1 could have. Our city has to balance the need to build affordable housing with the need to keep our most vulnerable residents and communities housed and intact. Not doing so risks undermining the efficacy of this directive, which aims to ensure more Angelenos have access to affordable housing, not fewer.
Maria Patiño Gutierrez is the director of policy and advocacy, equitable development and land use at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy in Los Angeles.
The red-hot real estate market of just over a year ago has become a victim of its own success. … [+] Escalating home prices and soaring mortgage rates turned homes unaffordable for many, while builders face growing inventories and plummeting sales. This is not good for the construction industry.
getty
On June 2021 I wrote a post here titled “3 Reasons Why The Real Estate Boom Is Not A Bubble.” At the time, a lingering deficit of housing units was pushing up housing prices but the combination of low rates, healthy savings and strong income made it still quite affordable to buy a home. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta agrees: According to a recent article, affordability was pretty high when the article came out. But oh my, how times have changed.
The real estate boom was running at full speed in 2021, when homes were affordable despite of rising … [+] prices. They are affordable no more.
Federal Reserve Bank Of Atlanta; Path Financial LLC annotation
The affordability index fell precipitously from those good times to the lowest value since before the Financial Crisis. According to the Atlanta Fed, the decline was (and still is) driven mainly by higher prices and much more expensive mortgages. These factors also affect homeowners who bought or refinanced their homes over the past few years at historically low rates: They are stuck, because moving to a new home will require in many cases much higher mortgage payments. This, in turn, contributes to the shortage of existing homes offered for sale.
Homes have become exceedingly unaffordable due to rising prices and skyrocketing mortgage rates.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Path Financial LLC annotation
Both existing and new home sales slumped. National Association of Realtors data shows that existing home sales fell from a peak of 6.5MM annual units in early 2022 to about 4.1MM units, or about the same as during the worst point of the pandemic, and they are heading lower. It is similar to the decline in new home sales, which in July 2022 reached the lowest level since March 2016.
After a post-pandemic boom, home sales have slowed down steadily and reached the lowest levels in … [+] six years.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Path Financial LLC
Conditions are unlikely to change much, since mortgage rates will stay high as long as the Fed remains determined to keep interest rates high to fight inflation. This means that sales will slow even further unless there is a price adjustment. This is affecting the construction industry, which had cranked up production in response to higher prices but now finds it more difficult to sell their newly built homes.
Residential construction ramped up quickly after the pandemic, and accelerated even more in late … [+] 2021 and early 2022 in response to higher prices leading to a much larger inventory of homes.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Path Financial LLC
What makes it even worse for homebuilders is that, according to the Atlanta Fed data, a lot more is still under construction, adding to the pipeline of new homes coming to market.
New construction activity continues unabated. The proportion of homes that are not yet finished … [+] versus those already available is the largest in the Atlanta Fed study period of almost 20 years.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
The growing housing glut is confirmed by other measures, such as the number of housing units in the U.S. as a percentage of population. That percentage hit a peak during the construction frenzy driven by the housing bubble of the mid-2000s, which took several years to adjust. But, when prices recovered and sales boomed, new construction kicked in and drove that percentage even higher.
The number of housing units per person is now higher than at the peak leading to the Financial … [+] Crisis of 2008.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Path Financial LLC
And this brings me back to the point I made earlier: With a lot of new inventory, even more coming out and affordability at a low point, home prices will have to adjust or sales will continue to fall. This may not necessarily be a serious problem for existing homeowners who can wait, but a big one for builders who, having tied up capital in inventory, will have to offer discounts to move their product. But, because of higher construction costs caused by the supply-chain crisis, their margins have shrunk and their ability to cut prices and still make a profit might be limited.
Either way, this is not entirely unwelcome news for the Fed, intent as it is to lower prices, slow the economy down or, preferably it seems, both. A slowdown in construction activity and lower home prices would go a long way to achieve the outcomes it seeks. The first part is unfolding, as the number of permits for new residential construction is 29% below the recent peak. Notably, permits sank between 30% and 77% off a prior peak in 7 out of the last 8 recessions, which suggests that the slowdown in construction spending may get worse if the recession everyone expects actually materializes.
The number of new residential construction permits has declined considerably and in fact more than … [+] during the pandemic shutdown. The slump is likely to continue.
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Path Financial LLC
When local factors are considered, national trends matter less
It’s important to keep in mind that there are differences between the aggregate real estate numbers presented above and the realities on the ground, which are influenced by local conditions much more than by nationwide numbers.
Take, for example, three counties in Florida (Manatee, Sarasota and Charlotte) just south of Tampa, on the Gulf of Mexico – which happens to be where I live and work.
According to Realtor MLS data, the number of real estate listings here dropped rather steadily from the 28,000 or so active listings in the months leading to the 2008 Financial Crisis (when monthly sales were a paltry 1,100 units a month) to a low of just 2,000 active listings in March 2022 (shortly after sales had reached a red-hot volume of 4,000 units a month that depleted inventory). In recent months the number of active listings has recovered slightly and is once again larger than monthly sales, but the number of units listed for sale is still far lower than for most of the last 15 years.
This area’s real estate transactions are influenced by tourism, retirement, and a migration into Florida from other states that picked up momentum with the trend towards remote work. In addition, the area tends to attract buyers of luxury homes who are less sensitive to price increases and don’t rely as much on mortgages.
The point is that hyper-local conditions override nationwide numbers, so while the information I presented earlier is important to investors considering real estate investments through instruments such as VNQ VNQ (an ETF that invests in REITs) or REZ (an ETF with higher exposure to residential real estate), it may be of marginal importance for someone evaluating the sale or purchase of a specific piece of real estate. While current conditions seem particularly unfavorable at this time for large homebuilders with a national presence, those thinking about buying or selling a home in any given place will benefit more from consulting real estate agents, who usually have the best understanding of local conditions, rather than aggregate numbers.
The new-construction community offers resort-quality active senior living, featuring luxury accommodations and a host of upscale amenities and lifestyle experiences for resident seniors.
Press Release –
May 13, 2022
BRADENTON, Fla., May 13, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– The new Active Independent Living community at Discovery Village At Sarasota Bay is officially open and welcoming its first-ever residents on Monday, May 16. Living accommodations include 198 brand-new, one- and two-bedroom apartment homes, each one offering spacious, modern kitchens, stainless steel appliances and full-size bathrooms with walk-in showers. There are also exclusive Signature Club residences available, which come complete with private parking and elevator access.
The new Active Independent Living community at Discovery Village At Sarasota Bay broke ground in February 2020 and has been engineered to provide features and programming that empower more freedom, flexibility and lifestyle personalization for today’s generation of more active seniors. The community will offer Discovery’s proprietary FlexChoiceSM pricing model, which eliminates “bundled” programming like meal plans, and instead allocates a portion of each month’s rent as discretionary FlexChoiceSM dollars that residents can use for their choice of a la carte dining experiences, entertainment, fitness and spa services, private transportation and more.
Measuring in at 250,000 square feet, the community’s spacious Grande Clubhouse will form an epicenter for resort living and recreation, with multiple, indoor and al fresco dining options; Legends Club & Bar; a chef’s exhibition kitchen, zero-entry heated pool with private cabanas; an outdoor firebowl with intimate seating areas, Discovery Silver Cinema movie theater; and a professional beauty salon, barber shop and spa and with massage services. Health and fitness offerings are highlighted by FitCamp®, a proprietary innovation in seniors’ fitness which utilizes cutting-edge equipment, personalized workouts and one-on-one coaching and support from dedicated FitCamp® personal trainers, and the latest in real-time performance tracking technology.
“From top to bottom, the new, Active Independent Living community at Discovery Village At Sarasota Bay has been created to enable more personalized, holistic lifestyle experiences that are as unique as each resident,” said Richard J. Hutchinson, CEO of Discovery Senior Living, which owns and operates Discovery Village. “Consistent with our company’s ‘Experiential Living’ philosophy, the community’s design and construction will complement a highly experience-focused program and services thatempower more optionality, choice, and personalization of every lifestyle facet from dining and recreation to fitness and beyond.”
Discovery Village At Sarasota Bay is one of 18 namesake communities owned and operated by the national senior living provider organization, which is based in Bonita Springs, Florida. Discovery Senior Living currently operates a national, multi-branded portfolio consisting of 110 communities spanning 19 states.
About Discovery Senior Living
Discovery Senior Living is a family of companies that includes Discovery Management Group, Morada Senior Living, TerraBella Senior Living, Discovery Development Group, Discovery Design Concepts, Discovery Marketing Group, and Discovery At Home, a Medicare-certified home healthcare company. With almost three decades of experience, the award-winning management group has been developing, building, marketing, and operating upscale senior-living communities across the United States. By leveraging its innovative “Experiential Living” philosophy across a growing portfolio of more than 15,000 existing homes or homes under development, Discovery Senior Living is a recognized industry leader for lifestyle customization and today ranks among the 10 largest U.S. senior living operators and providers.
