News Details
Variety is the spice of life in today's real estate market
04/04/08 -
Diversification and value bringing more families to Southwest Florida
BY MARK MARYMONT • special to news-press.com • April 3, 2008
Value - not location - may be the biggest issue in the current real estate market. But people also ask for many nice features, plenty of space and variety in design.
"We conduct a lot of studies on what people want and one said people want smaller homes," says John Sackett, director of sales at the Naples office of Centex, which is based in Dallas. "But, guess what, one of the most popular homes we offer is 3,021 square feet under air. So that is contrary to the study."
The increasing interest in design variety is fine with Christopher Joiner, an architect with WCI Communities for seven years.
"We are seeing a demand for a collegial lifestyle, which kind of incorporates a more traditional neighborhood design," says Joiner. "I wouldn't say they come through the door asking for that, but we are seeing more interest, especially down here, where there's not a real history of that kind of design."
A lot of people are going "green," at least to some extent, looking for homes that save energy, "and that is a big buzz in the market now," explains Joiner. "There may be some age groups that are more interested in that aspect, but people are aware of it as a design aspect. And, we try to promote it not just in the house, but in the community, by making them more pedestrian-friendly. Some developments are trying xeroscaping, using native plants that are drought-tolerant. It's a great strategy."
Although the interest in saving energy is there, saving money can be a bigger factor.
"We are finding in the buyer profile, whether it's the affluent move-up buyer or the buyer starting out, they are interested in value," adds John Sackett. "We made some solar-powered product in The Quarry in Naples. But, when given the opportunity to actually generate electricity on their home, a lot of buyers opted not to invest what I would say was an additional $25,000 to $30,000."
Even if it's not all green, Sackett says what he calls product diversification in their seven area developments is a big plus, "and that absolutely helps us. We work with, by and large, seven different products and it can be a theme alteration based on the elevations or exterior appearance, but we can still stick with the interior floor plans that we have found to be desirable."
While some communities still have a colorful tropical look, others are going with a more traditional style, what some developers call "old Florida" or "low country" design.
"We wanted to create that feel throughout and built the information center at the entrance to look like a house," says Jim Doyle, in the Jacksonville office of the LandMar Group, which opened River Hall east of Fort Myers two years ago. "We wanted to set the tone architecturally from the gate house to the town hall, a 50,000-square-foot amenity facility and to our golf club house.
"What we try to do as a developer is set criteria that will establish some distinction to the community and try to move the builder and their architect closer to the authenticity of what we are doing," adds Doyle. "We want to end up with fewer wildebeests and a lot of really nice water buffaloes. If you are going to do low-country architecture it has to be really authentic."
Meanwhile, at the recently-opened Paseo - which means a kind of walkway - the look is borrowed from what Stock Development's vice president of sales and marketing Claudine Leger-Wetzel calls, "a concept from California based on bringing people together. We see a lot of people who like the fact that we don't have what you would call your father's country club. It's more youthful with a lot of activities and things like a community movie theater, Internet café and coffee shop and many other amenities."
Leger-Wetzel says the 1,170-home complex has "a quad, which had 40 units surrounding a resort-style pool complex. You can walk out of the garage, in the back of the house, and there's a giant pool with hammocks, a barbecue grill and lounge furniture. It's very conducive to meeting your neighbors. People are social by their very nature, but they sometimes like to have that kind of environment provided to them."
Whatever style buyers are looking for they often have clear idea of what they want.
"The market has really changed in the past few years, people have really done a lot of research," says Grady Miars, a regional vice president for LandMar Group, who has worked there four years after seven with the Bonita Bay Group. "They come in and know what they want and know what's here because they have been on the Internet. Some are a little tired of what you might call the Spanish Mediterranean look and want something new. We also use the Internet by constantly updating our site and we even have an embedded video of River Hall to give you an idea of exactly what is there."