Greystar adds 176 homes in rural North Texas

The suburban swell across North Texas continues to expand as developers target towns outside of DFW for massive master-planned communities.

Greystar is jumping in on the ongoing Wildcat Ranch development in Crandall, a town of fewer than 5,000 people about 25 miles southeast of Dallas. Greystar plans 176 single family homes, likely built-to-rent, costing about $57 million, or about $323,000 per home, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing. The project will be located at 2204 Boiling Springs Road, though that address doesn’t yet appear on Google Maps.

The Wildcat Ranch community started in 2018 when an investment group dubbed SOCFM Developer LLC, led by Patrick Sessions of Sessions Development, acquired 900 acres in Kaufman County with plans to build more than 3,000 single-family homes. The project also includes multiple amenity centers, elementary schools and parks. DR Horton, Beazer Homes and Lennar have built homes within the ongoing development. Wildcat Ranch homes are priced from $279,000 to $350,000, according to Zillow listings.

Master planned communities on the outskirts of the Metroplex have been all the rage in North Texas the past decade as DFW’s population continues to climb. Texas was the standout leader in a 2022 report on the 50 top-selling master-planned communities in the country. Twenty of them were in the Lone Star State, which accounted for 34 percent of all sales on the list, according to RCLCO Real Estate Consulting.

D.R. Horton had five other communities make last year’s list, including No. 32 Magnolia Ranch, also in rural North Texas. The Arlington-based developer also nabbed the No. 15 spot with its Valley Ranch community in San Antonio.

On the north end of DFW, D.R. Horton’s Silverado was named the top seller of homes in Texas for the first half of 2022 and third-highest in the nation. Silverado is in Aubrey, a rural town of fewer than 7,000, just north of Providence Village in Denton County.

Also in Denton, the Perot family’s Hillwood Communities is building a 3,200-acre project that will include 6,000 single-family homes and 1 million square feet of retail.