The Virginian-Pilot
©
CHESAPEAKE
April Nobles climbed the wooden staircase Saturday afternoon and wandered into one of the home's five bedrooms.
"It's almost like you could live in the master suite," said Nobles, peering into a cavernous bathroom. "That closet is big enough to be a small bedroom."
At 3,600 square feet, the home in the Culpepper Landing development in Deep Creek is the largest among the 12 built for this year's Homearama. The Tidewater Builders Association's annual showcase started at noon Saturday.
This year's show is a departure from recent years in both the size of the homes and their prices. Amid one of the steepest housing declines in decades, show organizers late last year decided to downshift and focus on the middle range of prices.
Last year's show featured homes starting at $1.2 million. This year, prices are from $349,900 to $540,600.
The strategy seems to have paid off so far, with six of the show's homes already spoken for.
"I think they did a really good job staying with the budget this year," said Nobles, 56, a Portsmouth resident who has been to about a dozen local home shows over the years.
"I love to see the new building styles and get ideas for my house," she said. "You come here and see it. Then you go home and say, 'I could do something like that.' "
Homearama originally was scheduled for North Shore at Ridgely Manor, an upscale development in Virginia Beach. It was moved to Hampton Roads Crossing, a northern Suffolk development, then moved again to Culpepper Landing, a 488-acre project of Robinson Development Group between the edges of the Great Dismal Swamp and its canal.
The relocations put the squeeze on builders, who had about four months to get their homes ready.
Herb Watson, president of custom home builder The Walters Co. Inc., hired additional workers to help finish the two homes his company built for the show.
By 2 p.m. Saturday, dozens of visitors were walking up and down Dodd Drive under warm, sunny skies.
For Carl Morrow, 43, the differences between this Homearama and last year's were stark.
"We went last year but kind of wanted to see something more in our reach," he said. "I don't make $1 million a year."
Morrow and his wife, Barbara, 41, are in the market for a new home, and they arrived early to beat the crowds.
Despite the smaller size, the homes in this year's show feature many amenities seen in years past, such as tall vaulted ceilings, stone kitchen counters and pools.
"You still see some things you're not going to put in your home, a little overkill," Morrow said.
Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com
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High School Rezone
Don't forget to check the Chesapeake Public Schools website for the rezone proposal. This area is slated to be rezoned back to Deep Creek High from Grassfield High. The School Board is meeting 12 October and is scheduled to vote 26 October. Beware.
Who wants to buy an expensive house in Deep Creek?
Not me! They should have built the community in more desireable area.
Bad Location
Who wants to live next to a swamp and fight biting bugs, slithering snakes, and bears? Hey, I am all for wildlife! However, to make things worse, think about the location... really, folk, traffic near there is horrible on all sides.
Borough:DEEP CREEK-MOSQUITO
Ditto. I lived in Deep Creek, but on the other side of the dismal swamp canal. I would never live there again because the mosquitoes are out of control. The canal is standing still most of the time making it ripe for mosquitoes. Don't plan on enjoying your yard in the summer unless you have a double screened in porch. Don't say they don't warn you: the Burough is called Deep Creek-Mosquito in Chesapeake's public records. The traffic is another story because you are on the wrong side of the bridge if you work in VA Bch or Norfolk. Pricey too for this area.
Not Much
Innovation? Where? Pinched lots? Sure! Will builders ever again build affordable homes that working people can afford? It seems builders(just like always) want to maximize prices for oversize buildings so they can max-out profits. Builders are pushing too much overhead to build small,innovative homes that could enable small-wage earners to live modestly; instead they want to build pricey boxes for couples.
I have a couple of problems
I have a couple of problems with this year's Homearama. First, the prefabricated house was pretty awesome however if you do any research on those styles of homes you know that you can purchase them for WAY less than $489,000. Even if you take out $95,000 for the lot (ridiculous) it is still over priced. Second, some of the one story houses are extremely similar in size and style as my home - which although it's 2 stories it resembles the one story with extra room upstairs model - and it costs more than twice as much. I asked a builder how much it would cost to build on my own lot and he stuck to the $329,000 price then said the lost cost about $95,000 but that still makes the house $234,000 which is $76,000 more than a similar size existing home and THAT is just the basic model. So, yeah, those builders are still overpricing things. I guess they didn't know that we're in a rough economy. I understand that 6 of the homes are sold already but I question the folks who bought them at the price they paid. I think they will be sorely upset in future years.
I don't want to be a wet blanket, but..........
Presuming no down payment, a $350,000 mortgage at 6.5% would require principal and interest payments of about $2,212 per month. The 28% rule works out to a gross of abut $7,900 per month or $94,800 annually.
Sorry, builders, but you're prices are still too high for the majority of the buyers in Hampton Roads.
Logic doesn't set the market
Logic doesn't set the market price for homes, the US Govt does. By means of fannie, freddie and the FHA. Whatever the banks will lend people, they will spend, and the gov't will back it.
I'm not totally hating on the area, but there is no reason for high home prices here. The only thing I can figure is it's low intelligence driving it.