Quote:
Originally Posted by maggiemoo
Thumper,
The builders in Highland Vistas are wonderful! They are now offering custom changes too. They have much better quality of homes than Del Webb Sun City Mesquite/Pulte. Even though the cost per sq ft is higher to live in Highland Vistas; (Mesa Hills/Highland Hills, Suncrest, Shadowcrest) you get a much better home, yard, all of your landscaping is taken care of every week, plus you get included cable, trash pick up, insect extermination. The Highland Vistas communities are all gated with a lot less traffic. We looked up in Del Webb too, but those lots are way too small and the area is so congested. They also have a lot of "hidden" upgrade costs in their homes that these builders include. The sales in Highland Vistas are really picking up. 17 homes have been built in Suncrest, 8 spec homes have sold in Mesa Hills & Highland Hills, plus a few empty lots are now being built on. All of the resales that were listed over the summer have sold. You were here at the slowest time of year...come back for a visit soon before our nice little subdivision sells out!
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maggiemoo; Being from CT and living on 6 acres of land for the last 25 years probably has spoiled me. My wife and I loved staying in Mesquite and viewing the different housing developments but were shocked at how small the lots at Sun City / Mesquite were. Highland Vistas lot sizes were only slightly better. I understand that we will not need or want so much land in retirement but it did seem that a few more feet could go a long way in almost all the developments we visited. Unfortunately, many of the developments also had houses that seemed to be just slapped together. Most were unoccupied and the developments looked like ghost towns. The few houses available to be seen at Del Webb when we visited had decent quality. To be honest we liked the Del Webb idea and have visited many Del Webb communities. Most people loved their communities. We came close to buying a home in Sun City, Hilton Head but held off because almost every little thing became an upgrade. There also was no option for the slighest design changes. When we visited Del Webb / Mesquite we hoped for a different outlook. Everything again was an upgrade, especially some outrageous pricing for premium lots. We agree with you that the quality of Highland Vistas is much better compared to Sun City Mesquite. Even if you were to buy a comparable size house that was gated in Sun City it still seemed as if it would be a cookie cutter house compared to the detail and quality of Highland Hills. The only thing holding us back now is that it seems to us that there is just a glut of housing in Mesquite that is going nowhere. We saw hundreds of homes unoccupied and for sale with not much activity. Perhaps that has changed since we visited, but when I review the MLS listings I see many homes still languishing. I just can't help but believe that prices will fall far and fast and that it will be better to wait to buy. Another concern is all the buildup in Nevada and the effect on the availability of water. I never really got a straight answer on the water situation. One realtor told me that Mesquite had a wonderful aquafer, but another said while water wasn't an issue now, it could quickly become one if Las Vegas horned in on Mesquite's water supply. I'd be interested in any comments you had on this. In any case, for us it is not that Sun City is bad compared to Highland Vistas, but in my opinion, the concept of HV's developer is just a lot nicer at this time even at a slightly higer price. You also just have better customizing options. We still will probalby eventually buy a home in Mesquite and keep our CT place too. Half the fun is shopping for our ideal situation.