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Two of the country's biggest homebuilders have lined up a total of 3,653 lots in southern Yuba County for a potential land investment estimated at some $120 million.
The huge deals by Beazer Homes and KB Home mean that Sacramento's housing market, especially the "affordable" segment, will soon take a giant leap north. The two builders, along with others, simply can't find enough land closer to Sacramento on which to build their main stock in trade - single-family homes priced around $200,000.
With local lot prices nearly quadrupling in recent years, the builders say they were effectively priced out of the market. Executives with the companies see development close to the core of the Sacramento region becoming more like that in the Bay Area in the next few years,
featuring dense infill development, while more typical home developments head for wide open spaces at a distance.
Almost all of the lots Beazer and KB bought are in Plumas Lake, a 5,263-acre tract 27 miles north of downtown Sacramento west of Highway 70. Yuba County has approved the Plumas Lake Specific Plan for 11,000 homes.
The land, owned by a multiplicity of investors, is split; the southern half has 5,400 lots on 2,000 acres and is slated to develop first, with infrastructure to be started by summer. The southern section is where KB and Beazer have secured their lots.
Big buyers: KB was the No. 2 homebuilder in the four-county Sacramento region last year. The company sold 1,441 homes for a 9.1 percent market share, according to Ile Gregory Group, which studies the newhome market.
The only builder selling more was Lennar Corp., which racked up the largest percentage, 12.6 percent, with sales by its three local homebuilders.
Los Angeles-based KB, a public company looking to continue its high volume of sales, agreed to purchase 1,835 lots in Plumas Lake from Sares-Regis Group of Northern California, said Robert Freed. Freed is president and general manager of KB Home Northern California, which includes the Bay Area and the Sacramento region.
The company has also lined up 275 lots just to the north, near the town of Olivehurst.
Freed did...