Homes on parade
The Ridge Creek addition in Edmond is the featured neighborhood in the Parade of Homes Fall Classic.
Whether home construction is up or down, it’s time for a parade at least once a year, and this time it’s Sept. 9-17 and the Parade of Homes Fall Classic, an annual sidewalk sale of sorts for 77 years.
Construction is up so far this year compared with the same time last year, although, as usual, building activity varies by price range and location in the far-flung Oklahoma City metro area.
August ended with starts overall numbering 3,232, up 7.6 percent compared with the first eight months of 2016, according to The Builder Report by Dharma Inc. in Norman. However, construction was still at its lowestyeartodatesince2011.
With some Realtors using the word “shortage” to describe supply at entrylevel and first-move-up price ranges in some parts of the metro area, it could mean high traffic at the 106 parade homes, which will be open free to the public from 1 to 7 p.m. each day.
Builders are offering homes at all prices in the Parade of Homes, said Rusty Appleton, executive director of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association, which has organized the event for nearly eight decades.
Maps and information on the entries are at www. paradeofhomesok.com. Download a free ticket and check in at five parade homes to be entered in a $1,000 drawing. Parade books are available at metroarea Best Buy locations.
“This is our signature event,” Appleton said. “We’re really excited this year.”
Ridge Creek in Edmond, developed and with homes by Norman-based Foster Signature Homes, is the featured neighborhood, northwest of N Douglas Boulevard and Coffee Creek Road. Ridge Creek homes start in the high $300,000s.
Ridge Creek got notice earlier this year as the site of the St. Jude Dream Home raffled to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The fundraiser fetched $703,832 for the hospital.
Because of road work, the best way to get to Ridge Creek is to take Covell Road east of Interstate 35 to Midwest Boulevard, then north to Coffee Creek Road and east to Douglas, said parade chairman Dusty Hutchison, owner of Alder Fine Homes in Edmond.
“There’s a little bit of a catch there, but the good news is there’s plenty of parade homes along the detour,” Hutchison said.
Through August, homebuilding was virtually flat compared with the same time last year in north Oklahoma City (up 0.9 percent) and up a lot in Edmond (62.6 percent); and down in south Oklahoma City (9.8 percent), Moore (11 percent) and Norman (5 percent), according to The Builder Report.
Construction was up significantly in Mustang, Newcastle, Noble and Yukon, The Builder Report reported.
Appleton said the ups and downs depend on the builders and what they’re building.
“When I talk to builders, I can ask them what the state of the market is, and if I get five different builders, I get five different answers,” he said. “As best I can put together, it seems like the entry-level are still moving, and many of our volume builders that build in that market are doing quite well.
“It also sounds like many of our high-end custom builders that build for buyers over $1 million or so are still busy, as well. There’s kind of a doughnut hole in the $350,000-$500,000$600,000, somewhere in there, where I feel like the houses aren’t moving as well, and the buyer is a lot more cautious in that price range.”