More than 800 new homes planned in community south of Dallas

Builders are heading south of Dallas for a residential community with hundreds of homes.

Arlington-based D.R. Horton just purchased land for homes in the new 215-acre Bluff Springs community in Ferris, about 20 miles south of downtown Dallas.

The building site was acquired from Arizona-based land developer and investor Walton Global Investments.

Horton plans to build Bluff Springs in several phases with 830 total houses, according to Walton’s David Peter.

“This much-needed community will now take shape with this first phase of development,” Peter said in a statement. “Home inventory is in especially high demand in this area, and we look forward to working with D.R. Horton to support their plans to complete the residential build-out.”

Bluff Springs is being developed between Interstates 35 and 45 on FM 664.

Along with the home sites, the community will include sites for retail centers, open space and schools.

D.R. Horton already has Ellis County communities near Waxahachie, Red Oak, Midlothian and Ennis.

With booming demand for new homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, builders and developers are pushing south from Dallas into Ellis County looking for construction sites.

Walton Global Investments is one of the country’s largest land developers with almost 100,000 acres in North America.

The company owns almost 2,000 acres near Ferris in Ellis County and additional holdings in Waxahachie, Midlothian, Red Oak. Walton Global has other development sites in Grayson, Collin and Tarrant counties.

D-FW home starts have soared in the last year, with almost 60,000 single-family houses under construction in the area.