Across Sioux Falls, the pipeline of new homes has been shrinking. Between April 2025 and April 2026, the number of single-family homes and townhomes under construction citywide fell from 821 to 604, according to city permit data reported by SiouxFalls.Business. Builders in several corners of the market describe the same season: fewer permits pulled, fewer crews on site, more caution before breaking ground on the next phase.
On the far west side, at Cherry Lake Reserve, the opposite is happening. Van Buskirk Cos., the developer behind the neighborhood, is pushing forward on Westwater at Cherry Lake, a new 150-lot phase built around the same lake. A public notice in The Dakota Scout confirms the project is already moving through city approvals, with a right-of-way vacation for the addition scheduled before the Sioux Falls City Council on August 11, 2026.
That contrast is not a coincidence and it is not builder bravado. It reflects something specific about what a lake lot is and who wants one. If you are comparing new construction in Sioux Falls and Cherry Lake Reserve keeps showing up priced above similar-sized homes elsewhere, the reason is not hype. It is supply that behaves differently from every other subdivision in town.
The Math That Shouldn't Add Up
Set the two numbers next to each other. Citywide construction starts dropped by roughly a quarter in a single year. Meanwhile, one developer is opening a brand-new phase of 150 lots on a body of water, with a co-CEO telling SiouxFalls.Business the lots will move "very, very quickly" once infrastructure work clears.
Ordinarily, a builder expanding while the broader market contracts is a warning sign. Here it reads more like a builder responding to a waitlist. Van Buskirk was blunt about why: nearly every buyer his company sold to that spring came from out of town, mostly Minnesota and Iowa, drawn in by tight local inventory and a new-construction product they could not find at home in the same timeframe.
That is the first clue that Cherry Lake Reserve is not competing in the same pool as the rest of the city's new subdivisions. It is competing for a different buyer, with a different reason to pay up.
Who's Actually Buying These Lots
Van Buskirk's read on his own spring buyer pool is worth sitting with:
"Everyone we're building houses for this spring, every single one, is from out of town. We're speculating that it's the tight inventory. People are moving from out of town, and there's not a lot of options, so it's getting them into new-housing product."
That pattern shows up in individual stories too. KELOLAND News profiled Barbara Rasmussen, who moved to a Cherry Lake neighborhood from Southern California with her husband and two young kids. She described wanting more space and a slower pace without giving up a sense of community, and found it in a home with lake access, a dock, and a walking trail where her son fishes.
A buyer moving in from California or Minneapolis is not comparing Cherry Lake Reserve to a starter home across town. They are comparing it to what a half-acre with water access would cost in the market they are leaving, and by that math, Sioux Falls still looks like a deal. That is a different pricing conversation than the one happening in most Sioux Falls subdivisions, where local buyers are weighing new construction against resale a few miles away.
You Can't Dig More Shoreline on a Tuesday
Here is the part of the story that explains why this segment doesn't soften just because the rest of the city's construction pipeline has. The lake at Cherry Lake Reserve is man-made, sitting inside city limits near 12th Street and Ellis Road on roughly 30 acres, according to neighborhood HOA materials. A builder can plat more inland lots almost anywhere there is open ground and utility access. Waterfront is different. Adding shoreline means moving dirt, engineering a larger basin, and building infrastructure around water, not just around streets.
That is a slower, more expensive process than opening a standard subdivision phase, and it caps how fast new lake lots can reach the market even when demand is strong. It is also why Westwater, despite being announced as an expansion built on Cherry Lake Reserve's success, is only now clearing a city right-of-way hearing more than a year after it was first discussed publicly. The lots are not scarce because Van Buskirk is holding them back. They are scarce because water lots take real time to create.
For a buyer, that mechanism matters more than the sticker price. A citywide slowdown in construction starts tells you builders elsewhere are pulling back because demand softened. At Cherry Lake, the constraint sits on the supply side, in dirt work and engineering timelines, not in whether buyers show up.
Two Ways to Buy Into the Same Lake
Not every buyer at Cherry Lake wants a half-acre lot and a custom build. Jans Corporation has built Cherry Lake Village, a collection of lakefront townhomes and twinhomes with zero-step entries, oversized garages, and quartz countertops, positioned as a maintenance-free way to get the same water access without managing a large lot. That product exists for a real reason: not everyone drawn to the lake wants the upkeep that comes with it, and downsizers or buyers relocating for a job change often prioritize simplicity over square footage.
The price spread across the neighborhood reflects that split. Back in 2018, new construction in the original phase of Cherry Lake Reserve was priced between $350,000 and $500,000. As of late August 2026, active listings in the neighborhood ranged from roughly $630,000 to $875,000. At the far end of the spectrum, KELOLAND reported on a custom lakefront home under construction for about a year that carried a listing price near $2 million ahead of its appearance in a local Parade of Homes. That range, from townhome to custom estate, is not inconsistent. It is what happens when a single finite resource, the shoreline itself, gets divided among buyers with very different budgets and very different reasons for wanting it.
If You Want In Before Westwater Sells Out
If Westwater at Cherry Lake interests you, the timeline is worth paying attention to now, not after the lots are announced as available. As of this summer, the project is still working through city platting steps rather than sitting on a builder's active list. Van Buskirk's own comments suggest that once construction clears, absorption will be fast, consistent with how quickly earlier Cherry Lake phases filled.
That gap, between "approved for development" and "actively selling," is where a buyer has the most room to plan. Talking with a local advisor before lots formally release gives you a head start on understanding lot pricing, orientation, and what the builder's release process looks like, rather than reacting once the first wave is already under contract.
A Few Questions Worth Asking First
Is Cherry Lake Reserve inside Sioux Falls city limits? Yes. The neighborhood sits within the city, near the intersection of 12th Street and Ellis Road on the west side, according to HOA materials for the development.
Will Westwater lots be sold through a standard listing process or directly through the builder? Public reporting has not detailed the exact release mechanics for Westwater, but Van Buskirk's pattern with earlier Cherry Lake phases points toward a builder-managed release rather than a typical open MLS rollout. Buyers who want early access should expect to work directly with the builder's sales process once lots clear city approval.
What's the real difference between a Cherry Lake Reserve lot and a Cherry Lake Village home? A Cherry Lake Reserve or Westwater lot buys land, typically closer to a half acre, with the responsibilities of a larger property. Cherry Lake Village, built by Jans Corporation, offers an attached or semi-attached home with shared maintenance, aimed at buyers who want the lake without the lot size.
If you are weighing a lakefront lot against comparable new construction elsewhere in Sioux Falls, the honest answer is that they are not solving the same problem. One is priced against a shrinking citywide pipeline. The other is priced against a lake that cannot expand any faster than the dirt work allows.
If you want a clearer read on what a specific lot or listing at Cherry Lake Reserve is really worth, Danielle Konechne can walk through the numbers with you and help you decide if the premium fits your plans. Reach out for a free home valuation and a candid look at what your money buys on this particular lake.
