New Home Development

The Bee just published an article in this weekend's paper about the large number of posted sales for new homes in January. It was obviously due to the drastic price cuts and incentives that builders provided at the end of 2006. New homes are still going up at a record pace. Out of curiousity I decided to visit the new development in Roseville called Fiddyment Farms. I was surprised to see how much traffic there was going through these model homes. Fiddyment seems like a nice development since about 35-40% of the development is dedicated to open space and nature preserves, so it is a little more bucolic than some other developments that just raze the land. I've always been torn about these new developments because of the sprawl that they cause. I'm more of a proponent of dense city cores where everything is accessible by foot. Fiddyment, like most developments, is isolated, so you'd definitely have to get in the car to go anywhere. On the other hand, these homes are huge, very spacious-- so I can see the appeal for families. Prices seem pretty reasonable... but, I think the huge incentives are beginning to disappear. Hopefully, we've seen the bottom of the market, and home prices for the region will start stabilizing. If new homes are an indication, I think things are moving in that direction.