Tri Pointe gambles on hot exurbs of Houston’s cooling market

Hundreds of homes planned in two burgeoning markets

Tri Pointe Division's Joe Mandola with Woodforest
Tri Pointe Division's Joe Mandola with Woodforest (Woodforest, LinkedIn)

Tri Pointe Homes is launching two new communities in Montgomery County — one south of Lake Conroe and another north of The Woodlands.

Montgomery County sits just north of Harris County and has seen rapid population growth since the pandemic, according to the Houston Chronicle — specifically Conroe and The Woodlands. Earlier this year, the city of Conroe was highlighted by U-Haul as one of the top cities in Texas where people booking its trucks to move into the city rather than out.

The first development will span 95 acres on 12019 Moonlight Path Drive — right off Highway 105, just south of Lake Conroe. Plans for the single-family standalone neighborhood, Westridge Cove, call for 335 homes priced between about $300,000 and $386,000.

A welcome center and two model homes have already reportedly opened, and construction on a planned recreation center is nearing completion, according to Division President Joe Mandola. There are a handful of homes that will be ready to sell by the end of this year in Westridge Cove, he added.

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The second project will be an addition to Johnson Development’s 3,000-acre master-planned community of Woodforest, about 14 miles north of The Woodlands. Located at 536 and 540 Oakview Bend, the new subsection will go up in a heavily wooded area with homes ranging between $400,000 and $536,000.

That population growth in these exurbs could provide a bit of a buffer for sales as the market begins to cool down across the Houston metro. Overall, Woodforest homes sales are down compared to the same period last year.

“The market has slowed a bit from the beginning of the year, but recently we’ve been seeing an increase in traffic and interest. We are still seeing customers buying across all the price points, though the higher-priced homes are moving at a slower pace,” said Mandola.

Maddy Sperling

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