New Home Source Blog

Luxury New Home Spotlight: Visalia, California

The city of Visalia is growing at one of the fastest rates in the country. The Visalia metropolitan area is surrounded by fertile land that produces $3.5 billion in agricultural products each year, more than any other county in the U.S.

The economy is driven by this agriculture, as well as light manufacturing and industrial/commercial distribution. Visalia also benefits from its three biggest employers, Tulare County, College of the Sequoias, and the Kaweah Delta Health Center.

To meet the demands of the incredible growth in the area, new home builders offer a large number of new homes for an area of this size. There are 19 new home developments in Visalia, with 98 homes for sale.

This incredible area of natural beauty has several luxurious new home communities for its residents. Chaparral at Shannon Ranch by Centex is a unique development with tree-lined avenues, parks, and bike paths in a lush setting. The exterior of the Chaparral homes are truly impressive, set against the backdrop of the Sierra Nevadas.

At Chaparral at Shannon Ranch, the amenities and appointments of the interiors are what you would expect in a luxury home. Choose from 3 to 6-bedroom homes ranging from 1821 to 3518 square feet and priced between $214,990 and $389,051. At New Home Source, you can see all of the new home plans for the available models.

Top image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Luxury New Home Spotlight: Buffalo, New York

The waterfront city of Buffalo, with around 300,000 residents, has one of the more affordable housing markets in the country. While Buffalo is struggling with the loss of its traditional industrial base, housing affordability is a nice attribute for home buyers moving into the area or looking to trade up to a brand new home.

Buffalo's future prosperity may lie in the expanding medical and services industry. These changes in the economic base are occurring as Buffalo simultaneously works to transform the obsolete industrial waterfront into an attractive and entertaining area for the young professionals coming to the area.

New home builders in the area have many offerings that include a touch of luxury for these young workers and first-time home buyers. Waterford Commons, which is located just northeast of Buffalo in the town of Clarence, is a stylish new home community of Energy Star Certified green homes with striking exterior elevations and high-end amenities.

Luxury master suites and gourmet kitchens are in line with the demands of savvy home buyers. As a bonus, when the time comes for these homeowners to have a family, Waterford Commons is served by the highly-rated Clarence public school system. The hamlet of Clarence is home to just under 2,000 people, but is within easy reach of all areas of Buffalo.

All around Buffalo, Ryan Homes has new home communities with luxurious yet affordable homes that are perfect for the first-time home buyer. In all, there are 17 new home communities in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area with around 112 homes. Get easy access to the communities’ new home photos and videos, school district search, builder websites, and more on New Home Source.

Top image courtesy of Doug Kerr.

Small Space Vegetable Gardens for Your New Home

Let's face it. Many new home communities don't offer huge tracts of land for each new house. But don't let your dreams of having a vegetable garden at your new home fade. Compact and stylish vegetable gardens can be grown in even the most restricted spaces. With the right plants and containers, you can be enjoying home-grown vegetables in no time. All you need is good soil, water, and six hours of sunlight a day.

If your new home has a yard, but only a tiny spot in the sun, raised beds are the answer. Kits are available to make planting a small garden an easy weekend project. In order to get the most out of your little garden, choose continually-producing crops like tomatoes. Many plants have been specially bred to be compact in size and still produce the same amount of vegetables in standard size. Look for seedlings with the words patio, dwarf, pixie, baby, or tiny.

If a deck or patio is your only space, container gardens are a great choice. A five-gallon container will support most vegetable plants. Herbs take particularly well to containers, and a mix of herbs in a pot is both beautiful to look at and functional. Try planting the herbs you typically use in cooking, such as rosemary, basil, parsley, oregano, and thyme. Vining vegetables like beans, peas, cucumbers, and squash can be grown in a container and then on a trellis, porch rail, or fence.

If you're short on space, don’t feel limited to getting your produce from the store. With just a little planning, you can have your own vegetable garden at home.

Top image courtesy of Richard Kapp.

Featured New Home City: Rochester, New York

Rochester, a city just south of Lake Ontario, is the second-largest economy in the state of New York, after New York City. Approximately 1,039,028 people live in the metropolitan area surrounding Rochester.

Expansion Management magazine honored Rochester as the top-ranked metro area of one million or more for quality of life, and also for having the sixth-best public schools in the country.

Some of those excellent schools are in the Penfield School District, which is located in the town of Penfield, a principal suburb to the east of the city. One of the best values in Penfield is the Dugway Knolls new home community. Homes here start at $179,990 and are available in three- to five-bedroom plans.

Just down the road, another Ryan Homes community, Newbury Park, offers four-bedroom Energy Star homes from $235,990 in a new phase that backs to open space and a nature sanctuary with ponds. The community is within walking distance of Penfield Town Hall and Veterans Memorial Park.

Surrounding Rochester are eleven other Ryan Homes communities. Search New Home Source by location, price, school district, and other options to see all of the new homes in Rochester.

Top image courtesy of Rich Engelbrecht.

Are McMansions Going the Way of the Dinosaur?

You see one in almost every neighborhood: the enormous new home built on the site of a "teardown" and dwarfing the smaller, more modest homes around it - the McMansion. The name stems from the fast-food trend of super-sizing and is reserved for mass-produced homes over 3,000 square feet. As of recently, it seems as if the desire to super-size has been unseated by a new necessity to downsize.

Sales of Huge Homes Are Down

Sometimes called "garage Mahals," "Hummer houses," and "starter castles," these real estate behemoths are on the wane. Most people can no longer afford them, and the rest are afraid to buy them because of the economy. As sales of new homes have contracted, new home builders are are having success with their lower square footage offerings.

Bigger Doesn’t Seem Better Anymore

McMansions seem excessive to many people when so many in the country are hurting. People are also realizing that they just don’t need so much space, and the costs that come with it. There's also the effect of the green movement and the subsequent perception that McMansions have a greater impact on the environment.

Do McMansions Have a Future?

Most builders say that after an economic contraction, buyers want smaller and simpler homes, but demographics is also a factor. For the foreseeable future, the housing market will be dominated by empty-nesters and young adults, two groups that demand smaller homes.

What does this mean for the future of the McMansion? Time will tell, but like the dinosaur, they may find it impossible to exist in a new age.

Top image courtesy of A Syed.

Featured New Home City: Syracuse, New York

The city of Syracuse is the economic and educational center of central New York, a region of over one million residents. The previous mayor of Syracuse, Matthew Driscoll, dedicated his administration to sustainable municipal practices. Through his efforts, Syracuse was ranked #17 on Popular Science Magazine's list of America's 50 Greenest Cities. The city's new nickname, the "Emerald City," reflects its new commitment to the environment. Syracuse's new mayor, Stephanie Minor, appears equally committed to sustainability and the environment.

The green initiatives of Syracuse are supported in its suburbs by new home builders. The town of Clay, which is located to the northwest, is the city's largest suburb, with a population of around 58,000. Ryan Homes offers the new home community of Lawton Valley Hunt in Clay, with Energy Star-certified homes from the $160s in a country setting.

Waterhouse Landing, also by Ryan Homes, has planned, affordable single-family homes from the $190s on one-third acre home sites with huge back yards. Only 37 homes are planned for this community, which is also located in an excellent school district.

The new builder homes in Clay stack up favorably against the re-sale homes in terms of real estate values; in general, you can buy a new green home for less than what you would pay for an older home. You can see photos of the Ryan new home listings and search for other new homes in Syracuse by visiting New Home Source.

Top image courtesy of Doug Kerr.

New Home Upgrades to Consider

Part of buying a new home is deciding on what upgrades you should add. Many home buyers feel like kids in a candy store when they visit the builder’s design center, so it's best to go with a firm budget in mind and pick the upgrades that make the most sense. Upgrades that cannot be easily added later and that add a lot of value to the home are a good bet.

Flooring

Flooring is something you never want to re-do. It's expensive and very difficult to do once you're living in the house. Hardwood floors are an excellent choice, or pick tile and keep it consistent throughout the house.

Cabinets and Counters

Many home buyers upgrade the cabinets in the kitchen and baths. Adding this upgrade later on is difficult and costly. Keep all of the cabinets in the same style and color family. The same is true for countertop materials. Granite is an extremely popular option and the builder price is usually lower than the price of ripping out perfectly good counters and buying new ones.

Lighting and Electric

Light fixtures are easy to replace later on, as the upgrades usually aren’t much different than the standard. It's best to add extra light fixtures and electrical outlets before you move in since these installations tend to be both messy and expensive.

Appliances

Upgrading the appliances is worth some research. If you upgrade later, price the appliances you want and decide if the builder credit is a better deal than selling the new appliances yourself and getting what you want.

Finally, if there's an upgrade that you just can’t live without, go ahead and get it if you're so inclined. Buying a new home where no one else has ever lived is a thrilling experience—that upgrade will help make your new home your dream home.

Top image courtesy of Granite Charlotte Countertops.

Featured New Home City: Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma is ideally located on Washington's Puget Sound, about 32 miles southwest of Seattle, and had an estimated population of 197,181 in 2008. Tacoma gets its name from Mount Rainier, which was originally called Mount Tacoma.

The city's nickname, "City of Destiny," came about when the area was chosen in the 1800s to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Today, the Port of Tacoma is a center of international trade on the Pacific Coast. After a prolonged mid-century decline due to residents leaving for the suburbs and companies leaving the area, the beautiful city of Tacoma is experiencing a revitalization of its downtown core.

The Tacoma area has been named one of the most livable in the country by MostLivable.org. In 2006, Prevention.org named Tacoma number 19 on its list of 100 Best Walking Cities, based on factors such as safe streets, beautiful places to walk, mild weather, and good air quality.

There are new home builders with exciting communities in the suburbs of Tacoma. Just 15 minutes away, and halfway to Olympia, is the town of DuPont, which was recently annexed by the neighboring master-planned community of Northwest Landing. This community is award-winning and the number one-selling new home community in Pierce County.

In Northwest Landing, choose from 3 to 4-bedroom homes with between 1212 and 3640 square feet. These are offered starting at $230,900 to $359,900. At New Home Source, you can view virtual tours of different model homes and see detailed floor plans for the several different homes that are available.

In the greater Tacoma area, there are 5 new home communities with 78 homes for sale. The home listings are all available for viewing on New Home Source.

Top image courtesy of Paige Foster.

The Future is Here: Hi-Tech "Smart Homes"

Imagine controlling your new home's lighting, thermostat, stereo, security system, telephone, computers, energy management, sprinklers, pool and spa equipment, and virtually anything else from a command-center touchpad. What about controlling all of that by cell phone, or even by email from a remote location?

All of this high-tech gadgetry requires wiring that can handle it. New home builders now include "smart" wiring, or "structured wiring systems," with new homes in varying degrees of complexity, based on the home buyer's needs and budget. From satellite TV, security systems, energy management, home entertainment, lighting, telephone, and computers, all of the systems in a house can be inter-connected and controlled by the homeowner.

At the heart of a "smart home" is a centralized metal box called the distribution hub. Sophisticated CAT 5 wires, co-axial cables, and, increasingly, fiber-optic cables, move information around your home at fast speeds and all outside data is routed here. Wiring for all lighting, security, and other systems terminates in the hub. The hub sends signals and information to control panels in key areas of your house and can be customized to your needs.

The future is here. Even if you don’t feel the need for a smart home today, the next buyer may. Given re-sale considerations, even homeowners who don't own a computer should consider installing the minimum wiring (generally $500 to $1,000) to increase the value of their home for the future.

Top Image courtesy of Max (Tj).

Luxury Home Spotlight: Charlotte, North Carolina

In 2008, Charlotte was named the "Best Place to Live in America" by Relocate-America.com. This decision was based on factors including employment, crime rates, and affordability. The city has also picked up due to its vibrant lifestyle, new business opportunities, and outdoor appeal. Forbes named Charlotte the third most undervalued real estate market in the U.S. in 2007.

The livability and easy appeal of this city in the Appalachian foothills extends to its suburbs, where you'll find luxury living at its finest, particularly if you enjoy golf. The Club at Longview, located in the town of Weddington, is just minutes from I-485 and features the first Jack Nicklaus golf community in the area. The homesites are spacious and set among rolling hills, creeks, and wetlands.

All of the John Weiland new builder homes in this gated country club community have five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, and three-car garages. The manor-style luxury estates are set on an average three-quarters of an acre and come with club membership and access to the activity center. Just some of the features of the 10,000-square-foot facility are massage and steam rooms, state-of-the-art workout equipment, and fitness classrooms. The unique Youth Lodge upstairs caters to children whose parents are golfing or dining.

Browse the many available new homes starting at $899,900. All are covered by Wieland’s industry-leading 5-20 Warranty. Residents enjoy the convenient distance from Charlotte, the lower Union County taxes, and excellent schools.

Top image courtesy of Charlie Cowins.