Waco Is Getting 88 3D-Printed Luxury Homes Next to a Surf Lagoon

Waco's newest subdivision will not look like the others

A luxury community of 88 3D-printed homes is set to break ground this fall near Waco Surf, a wake-surfing lagoon on the outskirts of Waco, Texas. The development, called Desperado, spans 450 acres and is being built by ICON Build, the construction arm of the Austin-based 3D printing company ICON.

The homes will be printed with a proprietary low-carbon material ICON calls form-crete. According to business developer Jared Kuhn, the mix behaves like concrete but prints far faster: a roughly 2,000 square foot home goes up in about seven days, a pace a traditional framing crew would struggle to match.

Why a $1.6 million starter home is a story

Prices start at $1.6 million and run up to $3.2 or $3.3 million depending on the model and lot. That puts Desperado well above Waco's median home price, which has held near $270,000 for three years. Local realtor Cory Duncan notes that seven-figure sales already make up 5 to 10 percent of his business, much of it from buyers relocating from pricier states.

The first homes are targeted to open in summer 2027. A public preview was held on July 17, and the designs from Firmah Architecture call for the printed houses to wrap around two surf lagoons.

The bigger picture: Texas is betting on printed concrete

Desperado is not ICON's first large project. The company printed a 100-home community in Georgetown and has pushed 3D construction printing from demo to genuine subdivision scale. What is new here is the luxury angle and the pace: printing a home in a week, at this finish level, is a long way from the early pavilions and single demo houses.

For buyers, the appeal is speed, a lower-carbon wall system, and a home that looks conventional from the curb. For the industry, Waco is another data point that printed concrete is moving from showcase to product. Whether $1.6 million entry prices hold once the novelty fades is the open question.