2012 Spring Parade of Homes® Event Overview
Category: Newsroom » Parade of HomesSM - February 14, 2012
The Parade of Homes® is the Twin Cities home tour with the largest variety, widest range of prices, and most inventory, including 24 green certified homes that are included in the 115 homes on the Energy Efficient tour and 3 Dream Homes. Want to see a home that has it all? Our Parade of Homes front cover features TV icon Don Shelby, his granddaughter Beatrice, and a stunning home that meets almost every category, and is a green Dream Home. You can also explore 306 top quality new homes to help you get your fill of the latest and greatest in home trends, all across the metro area.
All of the new homes and neighborhoods on the Parade of Homes will be open Thursdays through Sundays from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm. Admission is always free except for The BATC Foundation Dream Homes, Parade Homes #3, #106, #114, where a charitable donation of $5.00 will be requested at the door. Dream Home proceeds help fund The BATC Foundation, the charitable arm of the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC), which rebuilds, remodels and constructs new homes for families in need.
Visitors can choose to tour new homes, remodeled homes, or both during the final weekend of the event with the Parade of Homes Remodelers Showcase® March 30th to April 4th. Each of the events have their own Guidebook, tailored to readers interested in new or remodeled homes.This spring, the tour coincides with the launch of the green certification program MN Green Path. The 24 MN Green Path homes on the Parade of Homes each have a HERS (Home Energy Rating System) score indicating how energy efficient the home is. Our MN Green Path Dream Home in Excelsior (#106) has a hers rating of 18, meaning that it is 82% more energy efficient than the HERS Reference home that is built to code. Because a HERS rating is often compared to the MPG sticker given to automobiles, the MN Green Path program is giving away Holiday blue-planet gas cards, Apple iPods, golf at Legends Golf Club and 24 keys for the chance to win the grand prize, a 42 MPG Volkswagen Jetta TDI from Schemlz Countryside.
Parade of Homes Guidebook and website work together. As always, the Parade of Homes is easy to navigate with the comprehensive Guidebook and interactive website. Free Guidebooks are available at any regional Holiday StationStore. The Guidebook includes a number of directories that list homes by builder, price, location, wheelchair visitable homes, and school district. The Lifestyle Categories allow visitors to choose homes based on the way their family lives.
The Parade of Homes online makes touring even easier. Advanced search options at www.ParadeofHomes.org let visitors choose exactly the features they want in homes to tour. They can get driving directions for each home, even map the quickest route using their own personal TourPlanner. And, the Parade of Homes social media neighborhood is always available to check for the latest information on the tour and the latest in housing trends. The social sites include: The Parade of Homes page on Facebook, the Parade of Homes blog, #pohtc on Twitter and the Parade of Homes YouTube channel. With the new Parade of Homes mobile website, smart-phone users can search easily for both new homes and remodeled homes, and iPhone users can find the app under Parade of Homes Twin Cities.
The 2012 Spring Parade of Homes is presented by the Builders Association of the Twin Cities and sponsored by Wells Fargo.