Nobody has a crystal ball that can predict whether a new home community will become a good re-sale area in the future. Are there aspects about the exteriors of the homes, streets, landscaping, "lay of the land", or other "streetscape" amenities to look for that can somewhat assure you that the neighborhood will age well, keeping values as high as possible?

This is an excellent question for consideration when new-house hunting, and is often overlooked by buyers in the emotion and excitement of a new home purchase, when model home "glitz" and presentation tend to dazzle them.

Once you have narrowed your choices to one or two communities, it's important to drive the neighborhoods. If this is not possible because of the lack of home product, look for that builder's other communities in the area to see how concerned that builder is in general with this issue. Even with no homes in place, however, the first thing to consider is topography. Although many new home areas are completely flat, land developers and builders who care about issues such as streetscape appeal put forth an extra effort to try to make new home communities less boring. They do this either by working with the terrain slope to create more appeal when approaching them (pads for each home are not identically set up for each home site) or planning streets to meander so that the neighborhood does not look like a uniform, straight row of "boxes". They will vary floor plans, alternating single and two-story homes, using different color exterior palettes, including roof tiles and trim work, and offering several different elevations. They will also alternate right/left hand garages and even create exclusively corner lot renditions, perhaps placing the garage access on the side of the house, rather than in front.

It’ fairly easy to observe whether the builder has gone the extra mile to create the differentiation and "custom" feel of the neighborhood by how he has designed the exteriors and laid them out. One home plan can have several elevations, for example; pop-outs in stucco or wood can vary in each case, and different styles, such as traditional, Mediterranean, contemporary can be alternated along the same street. Window shapes and masonry work (stacked stone, brick, river rock, etc.) can make the same floor plan look almost totally dissimilar, creating a more interesting look to the streetscape.

The more varied the exterior presentation a community has (as long as the homes blend in subtle ways) the better the neighborhood may look in the future. You may ask why this is so, and the answer is actually another question in itself. That is, what can each individual future owner do to differentiate their home from the others in the neighborhood, when neighborhood Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions dictate that they cannot alter much about the actual structure to begin with? It usually boils down to landscape and hardscape (walkways, driveways, courtyards, etc.) Will most buyers get creative with their front yards even when the builder has given them sod, sprinklers and a tree to get them started?

When personally deciding between two new home neighborhoods in southern California, my spouse and I noticed an interesting phenomenon. In one community, the builder "threw in" the common front yard landscaping. In the other it did not. You would think that our choice would be the first neighborhood. In reality, we chose the bare front yard scenario. Why? Because the neighborhood in which buyers who were forced to put in their own front yards (dictated to be completed within the first 6 months of occupancy) put in decidedly more creative and lush landscape plans than the developer would have. This created, in our eyes, a more interesting looking new home neighborhood. When it came time to sell our home, it turned out that our decision was well made. Selling prices for the same sized homes between both communities tended to be greater in ours, and we were able to not only get our price, but sell our home quickly.

Most new neighborhoods have rules that govern what homeowners can and cannot do with their homes’ exteriors, helping, in theory, to keep the neighborhood neat and attractive for as long as possible. Pay attention to newer neighborhoods nearby that already display heavy violations of the most common rules that may apply, such as permanent exterior basketball goals and too many cars parked consistently in driveways with garage doors kept open much of the time. Check out how owners keep up with their landscape maintenance. Do they let their lawns fall into a weeded field of neglect? Property values can be affected by what we may determine is a "pride of ownership" in a particular community. The greater display of pride, the greater the chances will be that values will be protected.

Builders hate the word "tract" when describing their production methods of new home construction. We Americans celebrate diversity not only in our citizenry, but also in our products, cars, and homes. Unfortunately, no one has that crystal ball that can assure you, as the buyer, that the new home you buy will keep its value, appreciate, or be easy to sell when the need arises. You can. However, do enough investigating on your own as to whether the neighborhood you decide on is a good bet, and that may be all the assurance you may need to make your final decision.

Published: January 15, 1999

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.