William Ryan Homes Nearly Sold Out in Estrella's Greenspointe at Mountain Ranch

While the Phoenix metro housing market continues its gyrations of good news one month and bad news the next, some new home builders are finding that if the location is good, and the new homes are well equipped with energy savings appliances and green building techniques, pulling the trigger on a new purchase becomes an easier decision.

Greenspointe at Mountain Ranch in Estrella is an anomaly in the local real estate market scene. "The sales velocity at this Goodyear community has certainly exceeded our expectations, especially since we started building in the Phoenix area after the real estate market stalled," said Corbett McCallum, Vice President of William Ryan Homes. In fact, in less than three years the 60-home neighborhood is nearly sold out, an indicator that the new home market is strengthening, especially if its the right combination of product, price and location. "I think the success of the neighborhood has been driven by a combination of location, pricing, included features and our flexibility in working with our home buyers," he noted. William Ryan Homes embraces a customer-focused philosophy that guides every decision by "what does the customer want?"

Greenspointe at Mountain Ranch offers mountain and golf course views, featuring four home plans ranging in size from 1,900 to nearly 2,800 square feet. The homes have HERS (Home Energy Rating System) scores of between 57 and 73 which means they are between 27 and 43 percent more energy efficient than other new homes built without the energy saving designs and building science construction processes.

Ski and Kathleen Romagnoli were the first buyers in Greenspointe and their enthusiasm remains strong. The couple and their two children had relocated to the Valley from Californias upper central coast at a time when the Phoenix metro real estate market was overheated. "That was during the period when home prices were increasing quickly and builder lotteries were taking place for the privilege of buying a new home. It was crazy. So, we decided to rent for a while in Estrella and see what happened." Three years later, when the real estate market had cooled considerably, they noticed some development activity beginning in a nearby neighborhood and became intrigued, especially once Ski walked a home site that he knew would be perfect.

The builder, William Ryan Homes, was new to the Valley and the name was unfamiliar to Ski, but his wife, a flight attendant for American Airlines, knew the builder constructed homes in the Midwest and so she stopped by one of the Chicago area communities to check them out. "I vetted the home builder in a big way. We felt very comfortable with our decision to have William Ryan Homes build our new home in Estrella," Kathleen recalls.

Because the family lived nearby in their rental home, they closely monitored the construction. William Ryan utilizes green building and energy efficient construction practices and it has paid off for the Romagnoli family. "Our electric bills are half of what they were in our rental home, and our new home is nearly 1,000 feet larger. The insulation and construction are amazing," said Ski.

William Ryan Homes utilizes a building science in the construction of all of their homes including tight construction, blown-in wall insulation, engineered floor and roof systems for increased strength and stability, and 3rd party inspection of insulation and duct systems to ensure optimum energy efficiency. The company also uses conditioned attic spaces which reduce the heat loss/gain on the cooled air running through the duct work, increasing energy efficiency and improving indoor air quality. Each home comes equipped with Energy Star rated appliances, high performance Low E windows and water conserving plumbing fixtures.

"We love our home, the layout and especially the bonus room upstairs which comes in handy with two teenagers," noted Kathleen.

The quality of schools in the area was also an important factor in the Romagnolis decision to build in Estrella. The couple investigated the Estrella schools and were delighted to discover that they are among the highest rated in the metro area, and in fact Estrella Foothills High School just received its A+ Rating from the Arizona Educational Foundation.

All of William Ryan Homes neighborhoods are located in Estrella, a master planned community with 72-acres of lakes, championship golf, a resort-inspired residents clubhouse, miles of hiking and biking trails, schools, shopping and the community borders the Estrella Mountain Regional park. William Ryan Homes offerings are Greenspointe at Mountain Ranch priced from $209,990 with square footages starting at 1,900; Ironwood Pointe at Mountain Ranch, priced from $159,990 with square footages starting at 1,450; and Serenity at Montecito, priced from $259,990 with square footages starting at 2,610. For more information on William Ryan Homes please visit the website at www.WilliamRyanHomes.com.