UPDATED, Aug. 6, 10:20 p.m.: Lennar Corp. paid $22.1 million for roughly 85 acres in Homestead as it continues its strategy of buying land in south Miami-Dade County.
The Miami-based homebuilder bought the property, west of Southwest 152nd Avenue, for about $260,000 per acre. Clifford Lincoln, a trustee of Keys Gate III, tied to Keys Gate Realty, is the seller.
The property is zoned for 770 residences, which breaks down to 117 single homes, 349 townhomes and 304 villas, according to the South Dade Newsletter.
Lennar and other homebuilders have been buying up land in South Dade, in part due to the rising cost and lack of land elsewhere in the county.
In May, Lennar launched sales and broke ground on a new housing community near Princeton.
In April 2018, Lennar paid $4.5 million for 32.7 acres of farmland near Zoo Miami. The company also spent nearly $11 million in 2017 for about 77 acres in Homestead, just west of the Turnpike along Mowry Drive and Southwest 152nd Avenue.
Among homebuilders, Lennar is one of the most aggressive land buyers. Historically, the strategy has paid off and has led to Lennar emerging as the country’s largest homebuilder thanks to its reasonably priced single-family homes.
Recently, a number of indicators, however, show that the housing market is slowing down.
While the company’s profit, revenue and home deliveries rose in the second quarter thanks to lower mortgage rates and strong incentives offered to homebuyers, Lennar also reported that tariffs on Chinese goods are also costing the company an average of about $500 per home.
That could be a bad sign for homebuilders since labor costs have risen significantly in recent years, making profitability more challenging.