Parading up and down: Winter storms, tight schedules impede builders

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The number of homes in the 2003 HBA Parade of Homes is half of last year's count. But Matt Morrow, executive officer from the Home Builders Association, said it was not due to lack of interest. |ret||ret||tab|

Compared to 23 homes in 2002, the 2003 parade has 11 homes with prices from $148,000 to the upper $400,000 range. The tour is 1-6 p.m. June 6-8 and June 13-15. There also is an energy-efficient Habitat For Humanity home on the tour.|ret||ret||tab|

Some new builders Up-Tyte Construction and Deer Lake Properties will be on this year's tour, while other usual tour participants are sitting out. Morrow said more builders wanted to be part of the parade, but because of a hard winter and a high demand for builders many did not have the chance to build homes specifically for the parade. |ret||ret||tab|

"Most of the homes that needed to be ready in time for the parade would have to have been coming out of the ground in December and January. This year was an incredibly snowy, icy and rainy December and January. That makes it kind of hard to dig a hole," Morrow said.|ret||ret||tab|

According to the National Weather Service this year's winter tied as the third-largest amount of snowfall in Weather Service history, dumping a total of 39.2 inches between December and March in southwest Missouri. |ret||ret||tab|

Aside from weather, home builders are in great demand, meaning fewer builders have time to build houses to showcase. |ret||ret||tab|

"The demand for custom homes is so strong right now. Many of our builders are working full-time just to keep up with that demand," Morrow said.|ret||ret||tab|

Kim Haase, of Haase Building and Development, said his busy schedule stopped him from following his normal parade tradition.|ret||ret||tab|

"I think we have only missed two years (of parades) out of the last 15. We had too much stuff going on, too many sales contracts and all that stuff. We just couldn't get it done this year," Haase said.|ret||ret||tab|

The number of homes in the parade typically fluctuates from year to year. In the past five years the number of parade homes has ranged from 10 to 23. |ret||ret||tab|

Kansas City parade goers had the chance to view 603 homes during its 2003 spring tour. While this number is significantly higher than Springfield, Morrow said the type of homes on the Kansas City parade is much different than what local viewers see.|ret||ret||tab|

"Customers in those markets are not as interested in the custom homes for new construction as they are here. The result is that the product that's offered is a high-volume, more production-type of home," Morrow said. |ret||ret||tab|

"In order for our parade to resemble a parade like in St. Louis or Kansas City, there would have to be a fundamental shift in the demand in our market in what people want from new homes in mass, and that's not where (the market) is right now."|ret||ret||tab|

Morrow said many builders in this area build custom homes, slowing down the production rate. Morrow said while builders in Kansas City or St. Louis average 30 to 40 homes available to show at one time, local small-volume builders spend more time customizing and average five to 10 homes a year. |ret||ret||tab|

With continued demand for custom homes and unpredictable weather, the number of parade homes may continue to vary, but it is not expected to increase significantly.|ret||ret||tab|

"We obviously always want to have more and more (homes) every year, but the parade kind of goes up and down. We've had years that were smaller than this year; we've had years that were bigger than this year," Morrow said. |ret||ret||tab|

"We always hope the parade will be strong and have a good collection."|ret||ret||tab|

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