FEBRUARY 10, 2010 WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
prime.time
News and notes on new home builders
by KEVIN WEAKS
Bad news is getting hard to come by I spoke at a seminar at the Home Builders Association the other day. The subject was “Housing in the Headlines,” and it was about how negative news can impact home sales. The concern, of course, was that reports of builders going bankrupt, along with news of lower property values, were keeping buyers out of the market. In truth, bad news is getting hard to come by. Building permits are up, traffic in new-home communities is increasing and resale homes are staying on the market for a shorter time. Whittaker Homes President Greg Whittaker reports that the number of shoppers visiting his communities has tripled in the last few weeks and that in one seven-day period he sold six homes. “The market has turned,” observed Jim Brennan, president of McKelvey Homes. “We had our best month of 2009 in December with 17 sales.” He credits low interest rates holding at 5% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and the federal tax credit. “Even if you don’t use the credit,” Brennan said, “it can help sell your existing home.”
••• Whittaker Homes has rolled back prices on single-family and cottage homes to 2003 levels at The New Town at St. Charles, which means a savings of from $50,000 to $80,000. This limited offer is part of Whittaker’s “25 Homes in 25 Days” promotion. For example, a four-bedroom, two-bath ranch with two-car garage normally priced from $242,500 is now priced from $164,500. Whittaker also has lowered the prices on New Town’s lakefront homes to the $180’s. Take Highway 364 to north on New Town Boulevard 1.5 miles. Call 636-949-2700 ••• Fischer & Frichtel has reduced starting prices by as much as $164,600 and launched all-new 2010 design portfolios for seven of its communities. “Base prices on these new plans have been pared down to rock bottom,” announced CEO John Fischer, “and we’re giving cost-conscious buyers far more latitude in choosing their interior features, which translates to greater control over the final contract price.” To kick off 2010, $10,000 Here’s what’s happening in the market: to $20,000 in free options of choice also are being offered to the first five purchasers If you like the idea of living in a park, at in select communities. For details and a list Thomas & Suit Homes’ Wyndgate Forest of communities visit www.FandFHomes. you can get a wooded homesite in a neigh- com. borhood filled with amenities like a pool, ••• four parks, walking and bike trails and more, In West County at the Villas at Westfor prices starting in the $290’s. In its quiet, meade, McKelvey Homes has put its tree-lined setting, you’d never dream that award-winning Cortina villa display to you’re only minutes from the Highway 40 make way for a new display, according corridor and Highway N. In mid-February, to President Jim Brennan. Westmeade is Thomas & Suit will be breaking ground for located on Baxter Road in Chesterfield a new ranch home there. Stay tuned. Call between Clarkson and Wild Horse Creek 636-940-2393 or visit www.TShomes.net. roads. At McKelvey’s Quail Ridge community in St. Charles County, ground has ••• Privacy is foremost at A.J. Borzillo’s been broken for a brand new ranch model Hencken Valley Estates in West County. called the Sterling. This “value engineered” design offers The single cul de sac street of 3-acre-plus homesites is laid out over more than 40 three bedrooms and two full baths plus a acres of former horse pasture. Prices start standard hearth room as part of a wide-open in the $690,000s or bring your own plan. kitchen-breakfast room arrangement. And Take Manchester Road west five miles at West Hampton Woods on Highway N from Highway 109 to the first left (Hencken near Z in Wentzville, McKelvey is building Road). The display is open this Sunday and a Carlyle two-story model with over 3,000 every Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Call square feet yet priced under $300,000. For 636-236-9927 for information. details visit www.mckelveyhomes.com.
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