Parades of Homes
Moving in and moving up
CITRUS COUNTY: Demand for homes is up and so are the demands of home buyers, who are loading up on extras such as pools, fancier floors and countertops.
By JUDY STARK, Times Homes Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 15, 2003
Here are two ways to measure the residential housing market in Citrus County: building permits and granite countertops.
First, the numbers. Builders obtained 1,184 single-family permits last year, up from 1,133 a year before.
Last month they pulled 1,057 permits, up from 813 in January 2002. That's not just single-family homes; it includes permits for remodeling and repair work as well as mobile homes and nonresidential construction. That total was surpassed in recent years only by February 2002, when builders flooded permit offices and obtained 1,229 permits in advance of the tough new statewide building code that went into effect March 1, 2002.
The big numbers reflect a number of market trends: low interest rates for mortgages and home-remodeling loans; greater housing demand in a county that is starting to feel development pressure; and the payoff of marketing efforts, locally and nationally, to attract new residents to this green and hilly part of Florida. The Citrus County Parade of Homes, which starts today, is an effort to capitalize on all those trends. See the box on Page 5F for details.
As for the granite countertops: While these may be common elsewhere, they've been the exception until recently in Citrus, where solid surfaces such as Corian have been the choice for those who wanted to step up from laminates.
"People want a big, nice home. They want the quality," said John Barnhardt of Signature Homes. He has installed granite countertops in his last six homes "and I'm going to do it in all my houses." The price of the two surfaces is now just about the same. All the customers he currently has in the pipeline saw the granite kitchen and bathroom countertops and the granite built-in desk in the den of his parade model, the Williamsburg at Pine Ridge Estates off County Road 491 (N Lecanto Highway) in Beverly Hills. "They switched out Corian for granite," he said.
It's a small thing, but it tells the story of a maturing market in Citrus, once regarded as an area where buyers cared only about how many square feet their money could buy and didn't spend on options and upgrades.
Not so now, builders say. Barnhardt estimates a typical customer will spend $25,000 to $40,000 in options on such things as wood or tile floors or better grades of carpeting and upgraded appliances.
Arthur Matthews, sales manager at Bluestone Construction, agreed: "People want what they want. They're going to spend their money, especially when they spend over $150,000 or $200,000. They're going to put what they want in the house," especially retiree buyers who say, "It's my last house" and load it up with the extras they've always wanted. His buyers often spend $25,000 to $75,000 on those extras, most likely including a pool or spa. "They want the upgrades," he said. "The retirees, they've got the money."
His parade model is the Paramount, so named because it includes a home theater, also at Pine Ridge Estates.
Citrus builders these days sound a lot like their counterparts in Hernando a few years ago, when the Suncoast Parkway was morphing from a dotted line on a map in the county planning office into an expressway that opened up the county to a fast commute to Tampa. Hernando builders figured that meant lots of potential home buyers who would enjoy lower prices, bigger lots and a laid-back, rural lifestyle.
That's what Citrus builders are anticipating. The Suncoast Parkway now ends at U.S. 98 at the Citrus-Hernando line and trims at least a half-hour off the two-hour drive to Tampa International Airport. The proposed extension will open up the area for residential, retail and commercial development. Already the county faces economic pressure from Marion County to the north and east, Hernando to the south. A Wal-Mart Supercenter is under construction in Inverness and another is proposed for U.S. 19 on the west side of the county.
"In talking to customers, I've heard them talk about how this parkway is going to be nice. You can get to Tampa much faster," said Juanita Faunce of Clanton Homes. And "we're just 25 minutes from Ocala," in Marion County, "where there are all kinds of places to eat and shop and places to go."
The builders talk up Citrus's rural atmosphere, its hills, coastline, rivers and forests. They talk about its good schools and say it's a good place to raise a family. They also talk about it as a place that's being discovered and developed, a place that treasures its wooded one-acre lots yet is thrilled to be issuing so many building permits.
Susan Bungo, customer service supervisor in the county Building Department, says there used to be slow times of the year in the permit office, "but no more. You go from busy to extremely busy to overwhelming."
The county attracts new residents from a variety of locations: from South Florida, where residents want to move out of sprawl and congestion; from the North and Midwest; and from neighboring counties. Jim Crosley of Rusaw Homes cited Internal Revenue Service figures from 2000 that he said showed that, of more than 4,500 people who moved into the county, 4 percent came from neighboring Marion County, and 25 percent came from five neighboring counties. "Marion has grown to be so busy; people are looking for more solitude," he said.
Rusaw built this year's showcase home, a 2,160-square-foot home with three bedrooms, two baths and an expanded two-car garage. The house, the Huntington II model at Laurel Ridge in Beverly Hills, is packed with energy-saving features. A thermal barrier in the attic repels 30 percent of the sun's heat. "Smart wiring" throughout the house accommodates electronics, computers and phones. A tankless heater provides instant, unlimited hot water. The air conditioner has a SEER (energy-efficiency) rating of 12, compared with the typical 10. The windows are dual-paned.
"There's a tremendous demand for these energy-saving features," he said. "We're about to start a fight over oil" -- a reference to looming war with Iraq -- "and you never know what it's going to end up costing." These energy-saving devices and building methods, he said, will offer a payback in three to five years.
The showcase house offers its share of glamour as well. The countertops here are Corian and the DuPont quartz solid surface known as Zodiaq. Off the lanai there's a tropical garden with a water garden, a rocky pond with goldfish. The house is valued at $230,000, he said, but because many of the materials were donated, it is priced at $198,000. Proceeds from the sale benefit the builders association.
Citrus Parade
WHAT: Citrus County Parade of Homes, a showcase of 26 new homes by 17 builders.
WHERE: At sites around Citrus County. Copies of a magazine with maps, directions and information about the homes are available at the models; at the builders association office, 1196 S Lecanto Highway, Lecanto; or at the Greater Nature Coast Welcome Center, 4018 S Suncoast Blvd., Homosassa. Information about parade models is also available at the Web site, www.citrusparadeofhomes.com. WHEN: Today through Feb. 23. Models are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
INFORMATION: During weekday business hours, Citrus County Builders Association, (352) 746-9028.
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