- January 2, 2025
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Arizona-based homebuilder Taylor Morrison is making a big investment in the Tampa Bay region this year, especially some rural areas in south Hillsborough and north Manatee counties.
Despite economic factors, storm delays, and push back from one community, the builder is pushing ahead to overcome a different obstacle: a lack of supply and home inventory in one of the fastest growing markets in the country, according to U.S. Census data.
“The area is certainly under-supplied with housing, and that's not going to go away anytime soon,” says Taylor Morrison Tampa division president Douglas Miller, who has been with the $7.23-billion firm since 2008 and in the Tampa office the last six years.
Taylor Morrison's plans include 3,300 homes spread throughout the region. There will be a mix of townhomes, single family homes and resort-style living (think built-in cultural amenities like wine and book clubs a la The Villages, but without an age limit).
Specific projects include
The biggest challenges in 2024, says Miller, were the effects of the hurricanes. Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricanes Helene and Milton ground operations to a halt. Miller also notes the general fatigue felt by everyone after the storms.
Even still, “When I look back at the end of Q3, beginning of Q4, certainly a tough time to sell homes new or otherwise,” he says. “Given the hurricanes, we did see a pretty significant slowdown for a few weeks, but November really bounced back in a big way, where that was one of our strongest selling months of the year.” He declined to comment on specific figures.
Another obstacle overcome was the end of an ongoing saga with Keystone, an unincorporated rural area of Hillsborough County. Residents were surprised one day to find bulldozers and survey ribbons on trees, according to reports from 10 Tampa Bay news.
A coalition formed and sued Hillsborough County to block the development in 2022. The lawsuit was settled in late 2023 and Taylor Morrison was allowed to move forward with the project. Construction began in 2024 and the first homes in the development, named Victoria Lakes, are expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. Miller offered a high note after the years of back and forth, “Residents of the Keystone area provided helpful feedback that we used to manage traffic during our off-site utility work and they offered some insight into community lighting that we incorporated into our plans.”
Victoria Lakes and the other new Taylor Morrison communities in Hudson, Ruskin, Plant City, Parrish and Palmetto are new territories for Taylor Morrison.
“We haven't built in those areas before, so we're excited to build in those locations that are nearby areas where we've been successful,” Miller says, “We've been successful in Hillsborough and Pasco and Manatee for a long time, so to have communities near those but in different municipalities and some markets, is exciting.”
The move seems to be an ambitious one for a single new year, but the company continues to set its sights on other parts of the Gulf Coast and Central Florida, too.
“There's certainly growth opportunity in Polk as we head north. Hernando and parts north up there, we think there's a lot of runway for us there too,” Miller says.
Moving ahead, there is a sense of optimism partially having to do with the ability to anticipate challenges. Although factors like decreased lumber prices have been favorable, there are plans in place to compensate for price increases and other anticipated obstacles. Overall, it’s a new year with new homes in a new market and with that is a positive outlook.
“In 2025 I think we're going to see some modest growth over what we experienced in 2024, although maybe interest rates aren't as low as we would like,” Miller says, “They certainly stabilized over the last few months, and that stability is important for shoppers making home buying decisions in ‘25. So I think ‘25 has got a bright outlook to it.”
