Rancho Mission Viejo Ranked Among Top-Selling Master-Planned Communities

By Shawn Raymundo

A pair of reports ranking the nation’s best-selling master-planned communities in 2018 has placed the still-developing Rancho Mission Viejo community near the top of their lists.

The real-estate analytic firms RCLCO and John Burns Real Estate Consulting recently published separate reports on the top 50 master development plans in the U.S. Rancho Mission Viejo, LLC (RMV) placed 11th on the RCLCO list, and Burns Consulting ranked the community 12th.

“We are thrilled with this achievement,” Nadine Corrigan, vice president of sales and marketing to the development company, said in a press release.

Corrigan also called 2018 a banner year for the “The Ranch,” as it experienced areas of expansion. New neighborhoods and a school were opened to the Esencia village while the first phase of the Los Patrones Parkway, a four-lane arterial highway through Rancho Mission Viejo, was completed last September.

According to RCLCO, the top-selling master-planned communities that had previously been ranked in 2017 saw an average growth of about 5 percent over their 2017 totals.

The Burns report similarly found that the top-selling communities “sold at least 320 homes per community last year,” which was slightly higher than the previous year. “Roughly 28,000 home buyers purchased new homes in these top 50 master plans in 2018.”

The Villages of Lake Sumter in The Villages, Fla., took the top spot in both reports. The Irvine Ranch and Ontario Ranch communities were among the top 10 on both lists. The Irvine Company, which sold 1,160 homes in 2018, saw a 36 percent decrease in sales, according to RCLCO.

As for Rancho Mission Viejo, more than 620 homes were purchased last year – a nearly 5 percent increase from the 595 homes that were bought in 2017, according to the reports.

The new Esencia homes cost between $500,000 to more than $1 million, the press release states.

“The intergenerational makeup of the community is a huge draw, and savvy home shoppers have discovered they just get more on The Ranch,” Corrigan said in the press release. “Our impressive home sales demonstrate the importance homebuyers place on the unique attributes and advantages found at Esencia on The Ranch.”