We All Love a Parade
Builders Association has been putting them on for over 70 years.
When you visit the wide variety of homes on display for the 2018 MBA Parade of Homes, you should know that the event has some 76 years of history behind it.
The Metropolitan Builders Association says that a 1942 version of the Parade – put on that year by the Milwaukee Board of Realtors – was the first such event in the country, and this magazine has reported that it “may well have been the first multi-builder showcase in the entire nation.”
That first show was called “Homes on Parade”; the first one sponsored by the organization now known as the MBA was in 1947, with the “Parade of Homes” name. But it was a far cry from this year’s show. First, the 16 new homes on display in 1947 were on a short stretch of 82nd Street near Burleigh Street, on Milwaukee’s West Side. In 2018, the Parade, which runs from Aug. 11 through Labor Day, has 22 homes, representing the work of 20 experienced builders, and is located in three Waukesha County suburbs. The Parade clearly has marched west since that early version.
But the evolution over the years has had more to do with economics than geography. An even bigger change in the event has been the cost of the homes. Prices in 1947 averaged about $14,000, plus lot. This year, says Jonathan Synovic, president of the MBA board of directors, the homes on parade represent three price levels – but the lowest level is around $400,000, though in this case the price of the lot is included.
And this year has a lot more variety in the type of homes featured.
“We’ve got a really nice grouping this year,” says Synovic, “a three-tiered pricing scale.” The smaller, less-expensive homes – priced between $400,000 and $600,000 – are in Lake Country Village in the Pabst Farms area of Summit, a subdivision developed by Neumann Developments Inc. along the south side of Valley Road a halfmile west of Sawyer Road. “Four hundred [thousand dollars] is now an entry-level home. It’s hard to find something in the threes anymore, anywhere,” says Synovic, who adds that these houses have in the area of 2,000 square feet of space. In Lake Country Village, he says, “we’re going to see smaller bedrooms, smaller footprints,
but not the feel of smaller space.”
The next tier is in Hidden Hills, a Westridge Builders Inc. subdivision in Sussex, along Maple Avenue about a half-mile north of Good Hope Road, where the houses are a little bigger (2,000 to 3,000 square feet), and go for anywhere from $600,000 to a million dollars, says Synovic, who besides his MBA position is also the owner of Source 1 Project Solutions, a Brookfield-based healthy architecture/interior design firm. His firm and Dimension Inc. teamed up to build one of the houses featured in this area, a healthier home, based on The Step Beyond Green to Healthy initiative.
Finally, the upper price tier of this year’s Parade will be in Brookfield at Lilly Crossing, another Neumann Developments subdivision along Lilly Road, a half-mile north of North Avenue. These houses sell for a million-dollars-plus, and because so much of Brookfield has already been developed, many tend to have small footprints. “Lilly Crossing doesn’t have a lot of room,” Synovic explains. But the square footage will not be small – some may look small from the street, but that view may hide a finished basement, with some bedrooms on that level.
So how should you prepare for the Parade of Homes? Bring your questions, says Synovic, as the builders are very helpful.
And be ready to be wowed by the latest trends in modern living, such as reclaimed wood, the newest flooring and high-demand wall coverings, including textured wallpaper.
The Parade of Homes runs from Aug. 11 to Labor Day, Sept. 3, 2018. Hours are 4 to 8 p.m. weekdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends and Labor Day.
Tickets allow entry into each of the three subdivisions once. They are available at Parade entrances and at MBAparadeof
homes.com for $12 for adults; $6 for seniors (65+) and children (ages 3-12); and children under 3 are admitted free. ◆