KB Home is advertising "final homes" at Highgrove at Fairview and "Final Homesites Now Selling" at Everglen. Those phrases tell you where Hollister's new-construction supply stands this fall. Most of the subdivisions selling today were approved in a planning era that started in 2007. The next large round of homes has to clear specific plans, new zoning, state oversight and possibly a citizen-led growth boundary before anyone breaks ground.
If you are deciding between a new build and a resale home in Hollister, this changes the comparison. Builder incentives that look like a normal feature of the market are offers on the last homes in a pipeline that will not refill quickly. The resale median you have seen quoted this month comes from such a small sample that it can mislead you in either direction.
The "from" price comes with conditions
Start with the numbers on the builder pages, which carry no update date and can change without notice. KB Home lists Everglen, at 210 Gentle Rain Drive, from $704,990, and Highgrove at Fairview from $799,990. Both pages state that solar is extra and that a homesite premium may apply. A resale listing at $752,500 usually includes whatever solar, landscaping and window coverings the seller leaves behind. A new home's base price includes none of those, so the gap between a new home and a resale home is often smaller than the two sticker prices suggest.
Financing incentives come with their own dates:
- KB Home advertises a 4.99% FHA 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage, quoted at 5.781% APR. KB's offer page says the APR example includes a $5,000 closing-cost credit and may include seller contributions. The rate was valid as of Sept. 24, 2026, and requires a purchase agreement by Oct. 31. Eligibility rules and community exclusions apply.
- Richmond American Homes advertises 4.999% FHA 30-year fixed financing, quoted at 5.737% APR, on select homes. Purchase agreements must be signed between Oct. 1 and Oct. 18, 2026, and the home must close by Dec. 31, 2026. The offer page does not say which homes qualify, so ask the sales office whether its Hollister inventory is included before you plan around that rate.
A fixed rate and an adjustable rate are different products. A 5/1 ARM holds its starting rate for five years and then adjusts. Compare the KB and Richmond American offers on what you would pay over the years you expect to own the home. The headline rates alone will not tell you that.
Why "final" means final this time
Builders use phrases like "final homes" as sales language all the time. In Hollister, the city's own project records back it up. The City of Hollister's Major Development Projects page tracks permits and occupancies for each approved subdivision.
| Project | Location | Planned units | Status on the city roster |
|---|---|---|---|
| West of Fairview | Fairview Road and Avenida Cesar Chavez | 577 detached homes and 100 affordable apartments | 439 permits and 403 final occupancies for the detached homes. Meritage and Lennar phases complete. KB Home and Richmond American phases under construction. Eden Housing apartments approved, none permitted yet |
| Everglen | Chappell Road | 82 detached homes and 16 attached ADUs | 43 permits and 23 final occupancies for the detached homes |
| Twin Oaks | Valley View Road | 170 age-restricted homes | 165 permits and 140 final occupancies |
West of Fairview's approvals go back to April 2007, with amendments through August 2025. Twin Oaks was first approved in 2009. The homes now being framed off Fairview Road are the last of decisions made nearly twenty years ago. Only a few hundred permits are left across these projects.
Smaller projects remain. In November 2025, the Planning Commission approved revised plans for Kramer Commons at 421 North Chappell Road near Highway 25. BenitoLink described the project as 70 detached homes and 16 duet lots, but the city roster lists a different count, so the final number depends on the approved map. In September 2025, the commission approved Everglen 2, six more detached homes at 241 Chappell Road. One of those homes must be a moderate-income unit. These projects are real, but they are measured in dozens of homes, not hundreds.
The next subdivision needs a plan before anyone builds
Hollister's City Council unanimously adopted the 2040 General Plan on April 20, 2026. The San Benito Blueprint reported that the adoption also ended a moratorium on new projects that had been in place until the plan passed. You might read the end of the moratorium as the start of a building wave. The plan itself suggests a slower start.
The plan's main growth areas run from Meridian Street toward Fairview Road, and from south of Ladd Lane toward Enterprise Road. Each area needs a specific plan, meaning a plan for the whole area, before any single parcel in it can be developed. A specific plan has to be drafted, studied and adopted before a builder can submit a subdivision map. The entitlement history of West of Fairview shows how long these steps can take.
Two other decisions narrow what can come next:
- On May 4, 2026, the council approved a new zoning map, scheduled to take effect 30 days later. The update removed the two-family and high-density multifamily zoning categories.
- The city adopted its sixth-cycle Housing Element on April 20, after years of delay and enforcement action from the state Attorney General and the Department of Housing and Community Development. Under the settlement terms announced in March, Hollister will remain under state oversight for housing projects until 2031 and must put $300,000 toward local affordable housing. BenitoLink reported in March that the settlement still needed court approval. The city's Housing Element page says full state certification is pending.
Hollister's 2024 inclusionary ordinance also still applies. Any project with 10 or more units must set aside 15% of them as affordable.
A petition that could add a public vote
Signature gatherers were outside Hollister's Safeway on Sept. 29. They were collecting signatures for an urban growth boundary initiative that residents Larry Rebecchi, Craig Rutz and Belinda Garcia filed with the city on Aug. 24. If adopted, the measure would require voter approval for new city services outside a boundary drawn near the current city limit. It defines urban development as any project that needs new or significantly expanded water or wastewater service. It would also remove the Urban Service Area from the General Plan. The initiative makes exceptions for schools, roads and other public facilities, and for housing the city must allow to comply with state or federal law.
The measure is not law. Supporters need 2,426 valid signatures by March 7, 2027. After that, the City Council could adopt the measure or place it on a ballot. The San Benito County Business Council opposes it and points out that the city is already evaluating a growth boundary of its own, with public input and environmental review. Voters in the unincorporated county approved Measure A in 2024, which already requires a public vote to rezone agricultural, rural and range land for residential or commercial use.
Whatever the petition's outcome, a buyer weighing a Fairview Road home against a resale home should assume the next large batch of new Hollister homes is years away.
What this fall's resale numbers can tell you
The resale side has its own measurement problem. For September 2026, MLSListings reports a Hollister single-family median sale price of $752,500, down 19.9% from a year earlier. For San Benito County as a whole, it reports $780,000, up 4.8%. The California Association of Realtors puts the county's August 2026 median at $825,000, up 11.1% year over year.
The Hollister figure comes from 28 closed sales, while the county had 31. With a sample that small, a few larger homes closing in one month and not the next can move the median by tens of thousands of dollars. A city falling 19.9% inside a county rising 4.8% reflects which homes happened to close, not a collapse in prices. The steadier September 2026 measures for Hollister are these: a median of $423 per square foot, 3.5 months of inventory, 33 median days on market and a 99% sale-to-list ratio. Homes are selling close to their asking prices, at a moderate pace, from a supply of about three and a half months.
C.A.R.'s August 2026 county data shows the same trend. Inventory was at 4.0 months and median days on market at 32, compared with 4.3 months and 43 days in August 2025. Resale homes are moving faster than a year ago. Meanwhile, new-home supply is shrinking and has no quick replacement coming.
How this changes the decision
When a builder is closing out its last homes, the incentive, the closing-cost credit and the lot you choose make up most of your negotiating room. The calendar matters too. A Dec. 31 closing requirement means the home has to be finished, appraised and funded within about twelve weeks of today. Resale offers a different kind of room. With 3.5 months of inventory, you can negotiate on inspection repairs and terms, even if sellers are getting close to their asking price.
For a new home, add the solar cost and any homesite premium to the base price before you compare it with a resale home that already includes those items. Then compare price per square foot against the $423 Hollister resale median from September 2026, not against a median sale price that dropped almost 20% because of a few sales.
Frequently asked questions
Are there still new homes for sale in Hollister? Yes. KB Home's community pages list homes at Highgrove at Fairview and Everglen, and the city's project roster shows Richmond American's phase of West of Fairview as under construction. KB describes both of its communities as down to final homes or homesites.
Did the end of the moratorium open the door to new subdivisions? It allowed new project applications again in April 2026. The main growth areas still need adopted specific plans before individual parcels can be developed.
Is the urban growth boundary in effect? No. As of Oct. 1, 2026, supporters were still collecting signatures, with a March 7, 2027 deadline.
Did Hollister home prices drop 20%? The September 2026 Hollister median fell 19.9% year over year on 28 sales, while the county median rose 4.8%. Price per square foot, inventory and sale-to-list ratio give a steadier picture.
If you are weighing a final-phase home off Fairview Road against a Hollister resale home, Jeet Sangha can put both on the same basis: base price plus options, the real cost of each incentive, and price per square foot against recent nearby sales. If you own a Hollister home and want to know how it compares with the last of the new construction, request your free home valuation.
