Check out this years award winners!
Meet the new American dream homes
You’re familiar with “comfort food.” The five designer houses featured in HomeArama, which opens today at Baxter in Fort Mill, S.C., are “comfort homes.” Nothing so everyday as mac and cheese, though – more lobster bisque.
Keeping it real
Last year’s HomeArama, featuring “right-sized” homes instead of faux castles, was a hit. Organizers say visitors enjoyed the houses with more open floor plans and fewer extraneous rooms than the event featured during the peak of the housing boom. Visitors appreciated the elegant but understated, family-friendly decor — and the price tags that didn’t soar into seven figures.
Those homes seemed designed for real families.
This year’s showcase builds on that, with some important additions: The five homes are crafted by different builders, not a single company like last year, ensuring more architectural diversity. And four of the five homes have already been sold, so they are, indeed, for real families. Real moms and dads with real kids and real budgets.
“But you’re still going to see lots of pop and pizzazz, and get good ideas,” says Kerri Robusto of Baxter Village in Fort Mill. “You’ll still see great houses and great design.”
‘Right-sized’ will be key term at HomeArama
Organizers are still working out some details but, if you look forward to HomeArama, go ahead and mark your calendar. The showcase of new homes is scheduled for early October at Baxter Village in Fort Mill, S.C. The show will build on the success of last year’s event, when “right-sized” homes drew more than 10,000 visitors. That provided lots of momentum, according to Diane Virkler of the Home Builders Association of Charlotte, and helped convince builders to participate this year.
The featured homes will be priced from about $525,00 to $625,000, similar to last year, but there’s an important difference. They’ll be built by five different builders, in five strikingly different styles. This years builders are Cyras Custom Homes, David Weekley, Evans-Coghill, New Old Homes and SH Studio Designer Collection by True Custom Homes.
