Heartland at Tule Springs in North Las Vegas emerged at No. 15 in the nation for master plan home sales as Cadence in east Henderson and Summerlin solidified themselves in the top 10.
Research firm RCLCO released its midyear top 50 list that featured three Las Vegas-area master plans on it. Inspirada in west Henderson, which was 41st at mid-year 2025, didn’t make the top 50 at the end of last year and is off the list as that project wound down.
Heartland at Tule Springs, Summerlin and Cadence contributed 1,555 sales through the first half of 2026. That total represents 36 percent of the sales among Southern Nevada homebuilders in the first half of 2026, where the overall total of 4,284 is down 15 percent for the year, according to Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.
“The story is those three have become the powerhouse for Vegas in terms of volume,” said Karl Pischke, a principal at RCLCO.
Heartland at Tule Springs, a D.R. Horton project, saw a 66 percent sales increase during the first half of 2026 compared with the first six months of 2025. It had 351 sales, up from 211 a year ago. The master plan was 41st at midyear 2025 and finished the year at 32nd after 39th in 2024.
“D.R. Horton has created their machine there to ramp up sales,” Pischke said. “An attainable price point is driving traffic and attracting buyers, and the availability of spec home inventory is probably an important factor there. It does seem like North Las Vegas is attractive from how much growth it’s been receiving and attainable price points attracting folks to that area. They will be an impressive force moving forward.”
Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith said the number for D.R. Horton will remain steady and move up the rankings in Las Vegas behind Summerlin because Cadence will be winding down at some point. D.R. Horton took out 629 permits in the first half of 2026, he said.
Cadence came in at No. 5 with 657 sales, a 9 percent decline over the first half of 2025. Cadence ended 2024 and 2025 in the third position.
“The national new-home sales market is down, and given Cadence has sold as many homes as they have is really impressive,” Pischke said.
Cheryl Gowan, Cadence’s vice president of marketing, said they’re happy to be in the top five of the rankings for the 2,200-acre community, where they continue to see consistent sales.
More than 8,200 homes have been sold at Cadence with 1,500 left to sell. Cadence started selling homes in December 2014 and debuted in 2016 at 33rd in the ranking and slowly moved up before peaking at three for two years.
“We are winding down and anticipate roughly the same amount of sales going into 2027,” Gowan said. “It will likely taper off after that. We do have less than 1,500 home sites left to sell, but we do have a great mix of products, especially for a first-time homebuyers. We’re not Summerlin and (don’t) have all of the land they do.”
At eighth in the nation, Summerlin saw a 6 percent increase in sales during the first half of 2026 with 547, up from 515 sales a year ago. Summerlin finished 2025 in the 10th spot.
Summerlin was No. 1 in the ranking from 1994 to 2002 and have been in the top 25 for 28 of the last 31 years. It’s one of the most consistent master plans in the country other than the Villages in Florida, Pischke said.
“The headline is they are up 6 percent,” Pischke said. “When you are a mature community like that even though they have been down the last couple of years, a 6 percent increase is impressive. They continue to deliver new neighborhoods and invest in new amenities and infrastructure. Historically, sales in Vegas you would see largely a market reliant on retirees. What we have been seeing for several years this shift of Vegas becoming a lifestyle destination and continued in-migration from California with a favorable tax environment. It’s attainable compared to many California markets. That lifestyle draw with sports matches that master plan community buyer. The two of those goes hand-in-hand.”
Few developers have multiple communities ranked among the nation’s top-selling master-planned communities year after year, said David O’Reilly, CEO at Howard Hughes, the developer of Summerlin. He said Howard Hughes has consistently achieved that distinction through a long-term development strategy focused on creating enduring places rather than simply selling homes.
“Communities like Summerlin don’t become top-selling overnight,” O’Reilly said in a statement. “They are the result of decades of disciplined planning, patient investment and an unwavering commitment to creating places where people genuinely want to live. Their continued recognition reflects not only strong demand for high-quality communities, today, but the enduring value created through thoughtful placemaking. As markets evolve, communities built with a long-term vision continue to stand apart.”
The 22,500-acre community offers more than 125 home floor plans across 22 actively selling neighborhoods, providing choices for buyers ranging from first-time homeowners to luxury purchasers seeking resort-style living, O’Reilly said. Complementing its diverse housing offerings is a collection of parks, trails, schools, retail, dining, recreation, healthcare and employment opportunities that continue to make Summerlin one of the region’s premier places to live, he added.
“Since the beginning, our vision has been to continually elevate the experience of living in Summerlin by bringing together exceptional homes with the right mix of amenities, services and destinations,” said Jose Bustamante, president of the Nevada Region for Howard Hughes Communities in a statement. “Every investment we make is intended to strengthen the community, enrich everyday life for our residents and create lasting value for generations to come.”
Florida and Texas dominated the list. The state of Florida represented 44 percent of sales among ranked communities, followed by Texas at 31 percent, giving the two states 36 of the 50 spots.
Florida, which had 16 among the top 50, had the top master plans in the nation led by The Villages in central Florida with 1,800 sales, a 12 percent increase over 2025.
Texas had 20 ranked in the top 50. The Houston area was once again the top-performing metropolitan area with nine communities in the Top 50, representing 3,049 sales, or 16 percent of all sales among ranked master plans.
The top 50 saw a 2.9 percent increase in sales over the first half of 2025. Comparing those on a the list a year ago, the increase was 2.3 percent.
Master plans sales outperformed the national home market overall as economic uncertainty, weak consumer sentiment and continued affordability challenges are contributing to a slower new-home market, with new-home sales nationally declining 5.6 percent year over year in June, Pischke said.
“The U.S. new-home market has faced a challenging environment through the first half of 2026,” Pischke said. “Mortgage rates have hovered near 6.5 percent, providing only modest relief from the peaks of 2023 and 2024. Consumer confidence, as measured by the University of Michigan’s index, hit a June low of 49.5, and improved only slightly to 54.4 in July, well below its long-run average of 84. This consumer uncertainty partly reflects elevated energy prices — up 15.7 percent year over year — and broader economic uncertainty tied in part to global political concerns including the Iran conflict.”
That makes the performance of top-ranked master plans all the more notable, Pischke said. Despite these headwinds, total sales among the top 50 reached 18,513 through midyear 2026, up from 17,983 in the same period last year.
“This trend aligns with a long-standing pattern RCLCO has tracked since the years following the Great Financial Crisis,” Pischke said. “Consumers seek safety and lifestyle value in master-planned community environments, trusting that their investment is protected by the placemaking, amenity depth and product diversity that top developers deliver.
“The most discerning buyers who are cautious, who are making deliberate, research-intensive decisions about where to buy, gravitate toward communities that offer a strong value proposition beyond the home itself,” Pischke said. “Trails, parks, town centers, schools, social programming and a sense of community are the reason buyers commit. The communities at the top of the rankings are not immune to the macro environment, with several posting year-over-year declines, but the cohort as a whole has demonstrated the cyclical resilience that has become one of the most consistent findings across 30-plus years of RCLCO’s master plan tracking.”
As for the outlook for the rest of 2026, Pischke said the macroeconomic environment for housing remains challenging, and the path to recovery is not without risk. Mortgage rates near 6.5 percent continue to price out meaningful segments of the market, particularly first-time buyers. Construction material costs are elevated, with the Producer Price Index for construction materials up 9 percent year over year.
Job growth slowed to just 57,000 net jobs in June, though the three-month average of 111,000 remains above the 12-month average. Consumer sentiment at 54.4 remains deeply depressed, reflecting concern over energy prices, geopolitical risk and general economic uncertainty, Pischke said.
The Federal Reserve’s path to its 2 percent inflation target is forecast to extend into 2028, limiting the near-term potential for meaningful rate relief. Since hostilities with Iran have been ongoing, oil prices remain elevated and the biggest wildcard factor in both inflation and mortgage rate expectations, Pischke said.
“Against this backdrop, we hold a cautiously constructive view on the master plan segment for the remainder of 2026,” Pischke said. “The structural advantages that top communities have demonstrated over multiple cycles from amenity investment, diverse product mix and strong placemaking, should continue to generate relative outperformance even as the broader market faces headwinds. Rate buy-downs, mortgage rate locks and closing-cost support will remain critical tools for communities seeking to capture share in a market where monthly payment sensitivity is high.”
The longer-term fundamentals remain intact, Pischke noted. Millennials and Gen Z represent a wave of housing demand only now beginning to peak, while there remains a structural undersupply of housing in many high-growth markets, including Las Vegas.
“Communities that continue to invest in lifestyle infrastructure, expand their attainable price-point offerings, and maintain product diversity across buyer segments are well-positioned to weather near-term uncertainty and emerge stronger,” Pischke said.
