Will house hunters drive up the Cajon Pass to grab a new home?

Five builders — Lennar, Watt Capital Developers, Woodside Homes, Richmond American Homes and K. Hovnanian Homes — bought land at the emerging Silverwood master-planned community in Hesperia where the first 646 homes will launch at 3,200 feet in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Model home construction should begin later this fall on what will eventually be a 15,663-home community that’s three-decades-plus in the making. Sales are expected to start in the spring 2025, say Silverwood’s development team of DMB Development, Schlegel Land Co. and Beaumont Partners .

Affordability will be a key lure to get homeowners over the pass and into the high desert. Silverwood pricing for the first homes — all single-family detached residences — starts in the mid-$400,000s and rises to the $700,000s, says John Ohanian, general manager of Silverwood.

“Some people can’t afford Ontario anymore,” he adds, referring to the soaring prices of homes in what were once affordable parts of the Inland Empire.

Ponder local pricing. New homes in San Bernardino County sold in August for a median price of $618,000, and they cost $646,500 across Southern California, according to CoreLogic. All homes, including existing residences, sold in the county for $510,000 and $760,000 in the six-county region.

Most of the initial Silverwood homes will be built on lots that are a traditional Southern California size, 5,000 to 7,000 square feet. But this first phase will offer some fancier residences on land up to 18,000 square feet.

And the community’s homeowner association fees are pegged at $157 a month, a fee that includes high-speed internet from the local provider, Spectrum.

The sales plan is for loosely 300 homes to be sold next year, 500 in 2026 and then 700 annually for years to come, Ohanian says.

“That’s about as fast as we can go,” he adds.

The 9,336-acre project in the Mojave River Valley will also include the construction of roadways and intersections to bring residents into the heart of Hesperia and the 15 freeway. There will also be 4,933 acres of parks and open space, plus 700,000 square feet of commercial and retail property — not to mention school and public safety facilities.

Here’s a sneak peek at what the builders have planned in Silverwood’s first phase…

Lennar: 183 homes between 1,539 and 2,760 square feet, three to five bedrooms, two or three bathrooms.

Woodside: 153 homes between 1,824 and 2,805 square feet, three to six bedrooms, two or three bathrooms.

Watt: 79 homes between 2,247 to 3,539 square feet, three to five bedrooms, three or four bathrooms.

Richmond American: 74 homes between 2,072 and 2,409 square feet, three or four bedrooms, two or three bathrooms.

Hovnanian will be building 157 upper-scale homes on the largest lots, between 12,000 and 18,000 square feet.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com