The Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties will hold its annual Parade of Homes the first three weekends in October. This year 24 builders will showcase the newest technologies and a wide variety of architectural styles in 42 homes spread throughout 31 neighborhoods in the participating counties. Visitors to the 2011 Parade will see a wide range of new building techniques – from advanced home automation, to the latest insulating technology, to heating and air conditioning systems that have optimized their operations for the lowest cost/highest comfort result, according to Nick Tennyson, executive vice president of the local HBA. “Builders continue to ‘kick it up a notch’ in creativity and energy efficiency,” Tennyson said. “There are great new things in home building every year – and this year is no exception.”  Eight of the 27 homebuilders are featuring homes that are not only energy efficient, but also green built. On this year’s Parade, 13 beautiful homes are being independently verified by an accredited third party and will receive National Green Building Certification, Tennyson said. These homes are being built using construction methods and materials that produce homes which are more energy-efficient, water-conserving, and demonstrate the builder’s interest in being more environmentally aware. The NAHB Research Center Green Certified logo appears on their entry page in the Parade of Homes book. One of the most palatial green-built homes is the $1,195,000 hill country home in The Hamptons of North Chatham, which was built by Sage Built and Windjam Development. The profits from the sale of this home will benefit the North Carolina Children’s Hospital. This executive home has a three-car garage plus 4,819 square feet of heated living space and a 20-foot stone fireplace that is the focal point of the kitchen and keeping room. Large windows in the great room overlook rolling meadow and woodland. This home, whose address is 131 Laurel Knoll, is just eight minutes from Chapel Hill. Proceeds from the sale of the home will be used to enhance and expand the services that NC Children’s Hospital provides to both patients and their families, according to Harry Krohn, vice president of Sage Built.

“Our team feels very fortunate to be in the position to offer the profits from the sale of this fine home to them,” Krohn said. 

NC Children’s Hospital, located at UNC-Chapel Hill, provides advanced, comprehensive care in a family-focused, child-friendly environment. More than 60,000 children from all 100 North Carolina counties come to N.C. Children’s Hospital, resulting in more than 200,000 visits annually for diagnosis and treatment.

For more information about this house and how its sale will benefit NC Children’s Hospital, contact Rex Osborne of Coldwell Banker Previews International® (919-880-7516) or stop by the Hamptons during the parade.

“When you stop by our house in the Hamptons, you’ll see what our commitment to excellence looks like,” Krohn said. “We love to share our enthusiasm about helping the children.”

Builders using green and energy efficient techniques, but who are not adhering to the NAHB’s Green standards, also have entries in this year’s Parade. Two examples close to Chapel Hill are Beazer Homes and Drees Homes, who conserve energy and care for the environment in multiple ways.

All Beazer homes feature Energy Star appliances and have low HERS ratings. A standard new home has a HERS rating of 100, which is the industry-established reference point. Each 1-point decrease in the HERS rating corresponds to a one percent reduction in energy consumption. Beazer Homes’ Stowe entrant has a HERS rating of 73, which means it is 37 percent more energy efficient than a standard new home.

“At Beazer, we are proud to build eSMART® single-family homes and townhomes that exceed Energy Star® requirements, conserve water, improve air quality and provide a lower cost of ownership to our homebuyers,” Scott Phillips, division president of Beazer Homes, said. 

Beazer Homes’ Stowe floorplan at Wynterfield in Durham has 1,488 heated square feet and starts at $139,990. Their Parade entry of The Stowe has many upgraded features -- hardwood floors, birch cabinets and granite counters in the kitchen – put the sale price of that unit at $165,145.

Beazer Homes also has Parade entrants in the detached, single-family home division at Ashton Hall and Cardinal Lake in Durham. Those at Ashton range in size from 1,999 to 3,246 square feet and in price from $180,000’s to $260,000s. Cardinal Lake features single-family detached homes and townhomes.

Drees Homes also has multiple entries into this year’s Parade. In addition to The Ashville, a detached, single-family home in Hillsborough’s Churton Grove neighborhood, Drees has entered a $142,900 townhome in Durham’s Brightleaf at the Park neighborhood off Highway 70, and detached, single-family homes from $334,900 at The Colony in Durham’s American Village neighborhood off 15-501 just north of Duke University’s West campus.

“Anyone who ever plans to buy a home should be out looking to see the value that comes with buying new,” Tennyson said. “Taking a self-guided tour during the Parade is an easy way to do it.”

A list of Parade Builders with information about individual houses can be seen at www.hbadoc.com, click on Calendar, scroll down and click on Parade of Homes.