Lennar Buys 75 Acres Near North Texas Boom Town Princeton

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One of Texas’ fastest-growing towns is about to get bigger, as one of the county’s largest homebuilders snapped up 75 acres.

Lennar bought the acreage from Ray Johnston, a Dallas country singer and land investor, for a future single-family home development, the Dallas Business Journal reported.

The land, sold through Johnston’s No Bad Days LLC, lies along FM 982 near Princeton, Texas, about 40 miles northeast of downtown Dallas and one of several boom towns refitting Dallas-Fort Worth suburbia.

Two parcels were sold in the transaction: 32 acres closed on Dec. 5, and 42 acres on March 6.

Johnston has been actively selling land in the area since 2021 after acquiring the property via 1031 exchange. The site was initially intended for self-storage development but pivoted toward residential use.

Johnston also sold a nearby 1.2-acre pad last year, where a Dollar Tree opened in February. He still holds about 62 acres in the area, including 16 acres under contract with a multifamily developer and 5 acres brokered for retail.

Infrastructure improvements are underway, with Johnston planning to sell the remaining land once sewer installations are completed this winter and a traffic light is installed by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Princeton is the nation’s third fastest-growing city; its population increased 22 percent from mid-2020 to mid-2023, U.S. Census data shows.

It is growing so fast that officials in January extended a moratorium on development, to address infrastructure needs, until this summer.

Lennar’s tracts are outside of the moratorium area, however.

— Judah Duke