The annual Parade of Homes opens dozens of houses throughout the Richmond area for tours, including a Ryan Homes house in Chesterfield’s The Highlands neighborhood. Photos courtesy of HBAR.
This year, the rentals get to join in the parade.
The 64th annual Parade of Homes starts this weekend at locations throughout Richmond and beyond. Put on by the Home Building Association of Richmond, this year’s showcase features 82 new homes and – new this year – two apartment properties.
The second new-home showcase of the year for HBAR, the Parade of Homes differs from the annual Homearama, which highlights a handful of homes in one neighborhood. The 80-plus homes in this year’s parade are scattered throughout the city and an eight-county area, including one home as far south as Prince George County.
An HHHunt home in the Holloway at Wyndham Forest neighborhood in Henrico County.
The showcase, which also features a new community this year – Chesterfield’s Magnolia Green – is open to any HBAR member. And where Homearama charges for tickets, the Parade of Homes is free, said Craig Toalson, CEO of HBAR.
“It truly showcases what the overall new-home market is in the Richmond area,” Toalson said. “It doesn’t just have production builders, semi-custom builders and your high-end custom builders; it is everything in between.”
Featured properties include townhomes, maintenance-free communities for residents 55 and up, and high-end custom homes on larger lots, with prices ranging from the $200,000s to upwards of $850,000.
And for the first time this year, two multifamily properties will also be featured: the recently opened Terraces at Manchester, and Main 2323 in Shockoe Bottom.
“In our opinion, if you want to rent and live in multifamily – that’s a home, too,” Toalson said. “Some people enjoy that more urban lifestyle.”
The Terraces at Manchester is one of two apartment projects introduced at this year’s event.
Toalson said the decision to feature rentals this year came from HBAR’s Multifamily Housing Council, which consists of nearly 40 member builders, developers and suppliers.
“One thing we wanted to help them with is to market their products. There’s something for everybody,” he said.
Properties are open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. the first four weekends of this month. The showcase had been scheduled for the first three weekends, but an additional two days were added due to the inclement weather forecast this weekend.
Visitors to Magnolia Green are also invited to stop by its welcome center to enter a drawing for a chance to win a free golf membership. The center will be open each weekend of the event. (Update: A previously scheduled “welcome center celebration” will not be held this weekend.)
Toalson said the home showcase is of interest to anyone in the market for a home, in the business of building homes or just interested in seeing the latest designs and trends, which he said change as often as the showcases are held.
“These houses, and even the multifamily apartments, change every year,” Toalson said. “If these builders and developers were doing the same thing they did last year, they wouldn’t be able to sell anything. It’s just like a car manufacturer or a TV producer: You constantly have to be tweaking what you’re doing.”
The annual Parade of Homes opens dozens of houses throughout the Richmond area for tours, including a Ryan Homes house in Chesterfield’s The Highlands neighborhood. Photos courtesy of HBAR.
This year, the rentals get to join in the parade.
The 64th annual Parade of Homes starts this weekend at locations throughout Richmond and beyond. Put on by the Home Building Association of Richmond, this year’s showcase features 82 new homes and – new this year – two apartment properties.
The second new-home showcase of the year for HBAR, the Parade of Homes differs from the annual Homearama, which highlights a handful of homes in one neighborhood. The 80-plus homes in this year’s parade are scattered throughout the city and an eight-county area, including one home as far south as Prince George County.
An HHHunt home in the Holloway at Wyndham Forest neighborhood in Henrico County.
The showcase, which also features a new community this year – Chesterfield’s Magnolia Green – is open to any HBAR member. And where Homearama charges for tickets, the Parade of Homes is free, said Craig Toalson, CEO of HBAR.
“It truly showcases what the overall new-home market is in the Richmond area,” Toalson said. “It doesn’t just have production builders, semi-custom builders and your high-end custom builders; it is everything in between.”
Featured properties include townhomes, maintenance-free communities for residents 55 and up, and high-end custom homes on larger lots, with prices ranging from the $200,000s to upwards of $850,000.
And for the first time this year, two multifamily properties will also be featured: the recently opened Terraces at Manchester, and Main 2323 in Shockoe Bottom.
“In our opinion, if you want to rent and live in multifamily – that’s a home, too,” Toalson said. “Some people enjoy that more urban lifestyle.”
The Terraces at Manchester is one of two apartment projects introduced at this year’s event.
Toalson said the decision to feature rentals this year came from HBAR’s Multifamily Housing Council, which consists of nearly 40 member builders, developers and suppliers.
“One thing we wanted to help them with is to market their products. There’s something for everybody,” he said.
Properties are open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. the first four weekends of this month. The showcase had been scheduled for the first three weekends, but an additional two days were added due to the inclement weather forecast this weekend.
Visitors to Magnolia Green are also invited to stop by its welcome center to enter a drawing for a chance to win a free golf membership. The center will be open each weekend of the event. (Update: A previously scheduled “welcome center celebration” will not be held this weekend.)
Toalson said the home showcase is of interest to anyone in the market for a home, in the business of building homes or just interested in seeing the latest designs and trends, which he said change as often as the showcases are held.
“These houses, and even the multifamily apartments, change every year,” Toalson said. “If these builders and developers were doing the same thing they did last year, they wouldn’t be able to sell anything. It’s just like a car manufacturer or a TV producer: You constantly have to be tweaking what you’re doing.”
Congratulations to us! The Multifamily Council continually takes a bigger role in the overall home building industry of the Richmond region and the affairs of HBAR by participating in this year’s Parade of Homes. We hope this will lead to many more apartment builders joining the Parade next year to show off our communities. Please come visit us and experience the new City of Richmond.