Around the country, home builders associations are finding it necessary to adjust tactics for their local home parades and new home tours due to the unstable economic climate and budgetary constraints. Many builders associations have seen reductions in membership numbers or weakening participation in their home parade events, particularly by custom builder members.
To maintain the success of their events, many home parade organizers are taking new approaches, such as joining forces with other local builders associations to produce combined shows or rescheduling their remodel events to coincide with their new-home events to optimize marketing dollars. Less participation by custom builders in parades has resulted in many events putting less emphasis on high-end, luxury custom, and spec homes.
In this year’s Denver Luxury Home Tour, June 5-July 5, the Home Builders Association of Metro Denver will showcase 27 new homes—single-family and condos—priced above $1 million in all parts of the city, rather than at a single development. The Sept. 26-Oct. 4 Pennsylvania Parade of Homes, organized by the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Harrisburg, will include several remodeled homes, as well as new construction.
A number of high-rise condo properties convenient to downtown Portland, Ore., along with nearly 60 new single-family homes, will be included in the 2009 Ultimate Open House New Home Tour, the annual spring showcase of the Home Builders Association of Metro Portland occurring April 18-19 and April 25-26. The association also has added educational clinics and workshops for first-time home buyers and for visitors interested in urban living. HBA Metro Portland’s 2009 NW Natural Street of Dreams, scheduled for Aug. 5-30, will focus exclusively on urban living, highlighting 10 high-rise condos in the Pearl District priced between $1 million and $4 million. Along with high-end city living, the event also will put more emphasis on sustainable construction.
In contrast, the Utah Valley Home Builders Association’s 2009 Parade of Homes, May 29-June 13, will put less focus on high-end properties and include more remodeled homes than in previous years. “The price points on parades in years past tended to be upper-end custom homes, which is good because visitors like that, but we have a good price-point balance this year,” says executive officer Caroline Merrill. “So there’s something for everybody; you can look at condos starting at $200,000 all the way up to a $6 million house.” Although the Utah Valley area’s market is more heavily dependent on custom building than on production, and 95 percent of the homes in the parade were built by custom or small builders, all builders in the area are building more affordable homes, Merrill notes—a natural result of economic conditions.
Others are making more aggressive changes and additions to their parades. In addition to combining remodeling and new-home parades, the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC) in Roseville, Minn., is continuing to add features to its existing Parade of Homes OnTour—an online searchable database of homes available year-round. Consumers can search by multiple home or community features, including a new lifestyle category. To set its spring and fall parades apart from the year-round online tours, the BATC is encouraging participants to hold special events, such as educational seminars or wine tastings, at their parade homes. The BATC’s Fall Showcase of new homes will be held Sept. 11 through Oct. 4, and its Remodelers Showcase will run Sept. 11-13.
The BATC has seen its membership drop considerably as local builders go out of business, consolidate with other companies, or temporarily close up shop, according to Wendy Danks, the association’s director of marketing. Although participation in the BATC’s showcases runs the gamut from starter-home builders to multimillion-dollar custom builders, Danks says there has been less spec home building activity recently. “I do believe the parade has allowed smaller companies to remain much more viable, because it evens the playing field and gets people out to see their product,” she explains.
Some parades will proceed as they have in previous years, however. Organizers for the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association’s Aug. 14-16 and April 20-23, 2009, Haciendas – A Parade of Homes are expecting participation rates to come close to those of 2008. Instead of the usual 40 homes on show, marketing director Cheri Johansen estimates the current count at between 25 and 30 participants.
“We’re expecting it to be a little bit smaller this year because of the economy. But we’ve always had a [bit] smaller parade than a lot of other places,” because the majority of builders operating in the area are custom builders, Johansen says. The parade’s second weekend coincides with the 2009 Santa Fe Indian Market, an annual showcase of Native American art and artists that draws visitors from around the United States. Johansen distributes the association’s Haciendas magazine to each hotel in the area to promote the parade of homes.
