How can the average price be between $400,000-500,000 without including those items? The price at Parade of Homes 'always' include those items.

I went to my Parade of Homes in Utah this week and saw:

*Fewer homes on the parade route
*Many more smaller homes
*Fewer multi-million dollar homes
*More basic landscaping
*In many homes, the quality of the finish work was really lacking. It was quite disappointing.
*A couple had tiny doors from the garage to the pantries for groceries. That was fun to see.
*A Susan Susanka inspired home. The ceiling heights were a bit clausterphobic, but I loved the away spaces. My favorite was the reading nook tucked into the space where a future elevator would go. I just wanted to crawl up there with a good book.
*More standard granites, less exotic varieties.
*Open floor plans were the norm.
*Most had 3+ car garages.
*A couple with really bad kitchen layouts.

Prices ranged from $241,000 to $3.5 million.

The $3.5 million included the lot - what a bargain! One for $259 included lot and landscaping.

Sorry that should have said $259,000.

Robin, I don't know how to respond to your statement. When I asked each builder the cost of the homes, this is the answer I got. Most of the homes were pre sold, so the builders were giving the price for the basic homes.

Our parade lists in the parade magazine what is included in the price. Sometimes it includes the lot, sometimes not. Generally, production builders in a subdivision include the lot in the price. Custom builders do not, since many buyers purchase their own lots and then find a builder.

Thanks Joyce and Scapbook for your insights on the parade of homes. Its always nice to see what builders are doing as things phase in and out! I'm glad to see some of what I'm doing in our new home will be "in"! (for a little while anyway!)

I'm not having a dining room! My main floor is an open concept between kitchen and great room. My master is smaller but we have a large closet. My kitchen is smaller than what I have now, but I've doubled my pantry size. (However, its not a room!) And I'm going with stained cabs instead of my glazed off white that I have now.

My current plan has my pantry being 10x10 with a sink and window. My father in law's house has an 8x10 pantry and it stores all those huge appliances that there are no other spaces for them and also the big dutch pots. They don't shop but once a month for groceries so they need as much as possible due to it being more than 30 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store. My reasons are that I have a big family and I hate grocery shopping. I want a huge area that I can keep a multitude of items on hand. I currently have a 4x3 pantry and it's not big enough. I also want a decent sized kitchen with an island. I have loads of dishes still in storage because I don't have enough cabinet space for them. It's so bad since I have to go into storage for my holiday plates and items. My master bath must consist of a tub. I love to shower but sometimes after a long day dealing with 3 kids and about to be 4, I need to relax in a warm bath while listening to the radio.

Joyce- Your initial statement makes sense. Some people don't realize that all the utilities are often not included. There are the hook up costs and the costs (often very high) to bring utiilities to your site, if they aren't already there. Water, sewer, electric, phone, internet, etc. are often not included in builder costs.

Landscaping, driveway, and any other extras are also additional costs. I don't think everyone calculates those, when they say building new is cheaper than remodeling.

Thanks for the insights into your area's Parade of Homes. I hope ours offers some of the same things...especially the bigger pantries and mudrooms :)

Wow...that's a pretty close description of our house: Contemporary Craftsman elevation (stone pillars v. big 2 story arches), still trying to swing the geothermal, very very green (full ICF, local products only, recycled glass counters, etc., 3 car garage, large kitchen with 9x9 pantry, stained/stamped concrete patio (cork inside because it's much quieter, warmer and kind to the body), large closet and smaller master bedroom, large mudroom, open floor plan, espresso cabs, no formal dining room...And here I thought we were ahead of the trend here. :-)

The only other thing we're doing is full universal design on the first floor.

I'm curious about the SmartSiding though. Off to research...

Here is a link that might be useful: de Jong Dream House

Lavendar Lass: Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps I hadn't stated my original comment well enough. Except for the very first home we built when we were very young (tract home), the bid for every home since then (all custom) did not include those items mentioned. It was for the house only, and everything else was just an estimation of what the actual cost would be. This last home we just moved into ended costing much more than we originally anticipated because of water problems, extra fill needed, bigger driverway than originally planned, etc. You are absolutely right that these costs are easy to under estimate, or overlook when doing comparisons. Too many variables.

My contractor just informed me that his bid was to lay the sewer pipe to the road, but NOT to connect to the sewer main on the road. Sigh. I asked what ballpark, and he said somewhere "over $10,000". NOT something I had budgeted for.

Joyce.....ok...that makes sense. All of the Parade of Homes I've gone to around here over the years always included those items. About a wk before it started, you could pick up a magazine(free) at one of the grocery stores that listed all of the homes with prices.

Robin- I believe if you buy the Parade Home on that lot, then it might include all of these costs. If you want the same home, built on your lot...then they are not included. A well and septic are usually more than hooking up to local water and sewer, unless you have to bring them to your lot...like Juniork's situation.

Juniork- Sorry about the unexpected cost. I found out how expensive all this was, when I helped my mom with her new home. We had to budget everything very carefully, since it's her retirement home...and we couldn't believe how expensive the sewer hookup was...and that was stubbed at the edge of her lot.

no formal dining room us! since we never used the one we had we are going to have a large breakfast nook and large 5x8 kitchen island. I love using the most of the space and not having empty rooms gotta get ya moneys worth

thanks, lavender. I told my husband that there will be NO real furniture shopping for a year or so... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be the last big 'surprise' that the builder has in store for us!

I'd prefer 'house only' pricing. In our area the land is often more highly assessed than the 'improvement', whereas new construction is often on land that a developer bought cheap.

Good point to inform about what is NOT included, like driveways, utility hook-ups, etc. On our build (teardown in a mature neighborhood) a portion of the excavation ran into the remains of an underground river -- sludge-y, boggy ground that had to be almost *sucked* out and carted away, then extra-deep foundation poured over that area. We also had to do long-neglected tree-trimming. We did get 'instant landscaping' though!