Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Company breaks ground on townhouse community at former golf course in Las Vegas

Tom McCormick

Bryan Horwath

Tom McCormick, president of the Touchstone Living development company, poses for a photo at the site of the company’s planned Independence community at the former Royal Links Golf Club in the east valley.

After a groundbreaking ceremony for a new housing development, Tom McCormick was stopped by a passerby along Vegas Valley Drive in the east valley.

The man wanted to ask McCormick, president of the Touchstone Living development company, about the planned community — called Independence. A roadside billboard advertised new homes “from the $200,000s.” 

“He saw the sign and wanted to know how to buy a home,” McCormick said Monday. “The sign went up Friday, and we’ve been getting calls ever since.”

With the median price for an existing detached home in the Las Vegas Valley at $475,000 last month, the idea of buying a home seems out of reach for many people in Southern Nevada.

McCormick’s development plans to offer two- to four-bedroom townhomes starting below $300,000.

Touchstone, a local firm, last year purchased 162 acres at the former Royal Links Golf Club. The deal closed for just under $34 million, according to Clark County records.

Construction hasn’t started yet, but McCormick said he hopes to have model homes ready for potential buyers to view this year.

Touchstone is the company behind the Mosiac community in the far southern part of the valley and the Watercolor community in North Las Vegas.

Homebuyers have closed on more than 800 homes at those two communities. Touchstone hopes to build nearly 800 homes at Mosiac and nearly 1,200 at Watercolor.

Most of the attendees at Monday morning’s groundbreaking ceremony were Touchstone employees, though a couple of potential buyers — and a pair of curious coyotes — stopped by.

A single mother with four children, Glori Descent was among those who wanted to find out more. She moved to Las Vegas from Oregon about a year ago.

She said if she signs a new lease for the apartment where she and her children live, it would be for an additional $800 a month.

Descent’s story isn’t unusual, as landlords have increased rents at many properties in recent months.

“I just got the letter,” Descent said. “It’s ridiculous. It’s only a two-bedroom with an office. I came today because of the price range they’re advertising. What I’ve been looking at around town, oh my goodness.”

Would-be first-time homebuyers across the United States have been feeling the pain of rising home prices.

In Las Vegas, the median price of a home has quadrupled in the past decade.

The median price for a condo or townhome in the valley has skyrocketed to $275,000. 

California residents have continued to spill into the Las Vegas market, often driving up prices.

That’s because the housing markets in Southern California and the Bay Area are even more inflated. Homeowners can cash out there and buy at what they consider a bargain price in Southern Nevada.

In addition, there’s only so much available land to build on in the region. Housing demand in the region is expected to “outpace the market’s land capacity within the next 11 years,” according to a recent report from research firm Applied Analysis.

In short, housing — specifically affordable housing — is a big issue in the valley.

“There’s so much incentive now to buy houses and rent them out,” McCormick said. “People who want to save for a down payment on their own home find it very difficult to save because rents are going so high. Prices have gone up 20% in the last year, but incomes haven’t gone up that much.”

The townhomes at Independence, McCormick said, will be geared toward people who rent, but are interested in owning their own property.

A Touchstone spokesman said that there will not be a test to confirm whether a potential owner has had a mortgage in the past, but living at the unit will be a requirement.

The company plans to put up 1,600 two-story townhomes. The units will all have washing machines and dryers, and the community will have four swimming pools and several playground and picnic areas.

There’s no waiting list yet, but Touchstone has already received numerous calls about availability.

At Mosiac and Watercolor, Touchstone has about 600 people on waiting lists.

“We can’t produce enough homes,” McCormick said. “It’s great for us because we have all this demand, but I moved here from Southern California about 30 years ago and it was because Southern California was getting too expensive. Las Vegas is not supposed to be a place where homeownership is out of reach, but that’s where it’s going.”

Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom, who represents District E, which is where the Independence site sits, called the planned community a “start” for what the county needs.

The valley needs more dense housing options because of dwindling land availability for new building and a scarce water supply.

“Looking to the future, we have to look at how we can live within our means,” Segerblom said. “We’re going to have to have a lot of townhomes in a small area but a lot of land around them where we have shared offerings. If the valley is going to keep growing, with our water limitations, this is how we’re going to have to grow.”

Segerblom said he hopes other developers follow Touchstone’s lead.

“We’re going to have more than a thousand (units) here, but we need 100,000,” Segerblom said. “Townhomes are part of the solution. We’re not all going to be able to live in a house in the desert like how I grew up. We’ll have to learn to live closer together or our economy is going to stop.”