Show Village 2010 Preview

If you are planning to attend Professional Builder's annual Show Village exhibit at IBS next month, you'll probably notice a stark contrast between our latest generation of demonstration homes and the show homes of year's past. Gone are the multi-million-dollar designs geared toward the highest end of the home-buyer market. Gone are the 6,000-square-foot floor plans with grand staircases, luxurious master bathrooms and kitchens fit for an Iron Chef.

The 2010 edition of Show Village will showcase homes that are much more modest in size and affordable in price, reflecting the state of today's home-buyer market. The three models—Osprey, Highlander and La Linda—all fall into the $100,000-$250,000 price range for the models as shown; other models are available for as low as $50,000. Floor plans range from 510 to 2,280 square feet, and are highly adaptable for a range of buyer types.

“The average size of a new single-family home has been dropping for a couple of years, and we see that trend continuing,” says Ron Powell, president of manufacturing for Palm Harbor Homes, which is teaming with Professional Builder and our sponsor partners to design and build the Show Village homes for IBS 2010. “We're responding to the market with homes that are on the affordable side, but with all the amenities today's home buyers come to expect.”

All three homes are high-performance structures designed to achieve certification through NAHB's Model Green Home Building Guidelines. Sustainable features include high-performance windows, no-VOC paint and energy-efficient HVAC systems. Also, in keeping with Show Village tradition, the homes will be chock full of innovative home building products and systems—both new and tried-and-true.

To learn more about the three Show Village model homes, click on the images below.