Washington's largest home show to start Sept. 24

The Spokane Home Builders Association’s sixth annual Fall Festival of Homes is bigger – and thereby better – than organizers expected it to be, with 41 homes from 24 builders slated to be on display during the two-week event.

At that size, the upcoming show will have six more homes than it did last year and will maintain its stature as the largest new-home show in Washington state.
The Fall Festival takes place the last weekend in September, Sept. 24-26, and the first weekend in

October, 1-3. The Festival is a scattered-site show, with homes located in neighborhoods throughout the Spokane area.

The houses range in market value from the low $200,000s to the high $750,000s, and most of them are built on a speculative basis, meaning that most are available to purchase. In past years, many builders have reported having success selling the homes they build during the two-weekend event.

The homes are staged and furnished, so in addition to attracting prospective homebuyers, the Festival attracts homeowners looking for interior decorating ideas.

Many of the homes are built to be energy efficient and feature other sustainable products and practices. A number of the homes on the tour will be certified as sustainable through the Inland Northwest Built Green program, which gives homes a star rating based on the level of energy efficiency and sustainability. Last year’s show included homes with ratings ranging from two to five stars.

This year’s Fall Festival is sponsored by Pro-Build, as well as Bank of America Home Loans, Coldwell Banker Tomlinson and Ferguson Bath and Kitchen Gallery.

Five host sites have been selected for the show. At the host sites, visitors can pick up show guides and maps and get more information on new-home construction. The host sites are:

• Liberty Lake: Greenstone Homes is featuring two houses in its River District neighborhood, on the north side of Interstate 90 and about a mile east of the Barker Road-Mission Avenue interchange.
• Spokane Valley: Coyote Rock LLC, is building a new subdivision called Coyote Rock on the south shore of the Spokane River, between Argonne and Pines. The development company will have two homes in the show, including a waterfront home that is priced in the high $700,000 price range. That house is expected to be the highest-priced house in the show.
• North Side: Georgen Homes and Marsh Construction separately are building new homes at Five Mile Heights, on the Five Mile Prairie in north Spokane, and that neighborhood will serve as a host site.
• West Plains: Copper Basin Construction will feature a home in the Pillar Rock neighborhood, which is north of U.S. 2 and east of Flint Road in Airway Heights.
• South: Eagle Ridge, a Newland Communities development located just west of U.S. 195 in Latah Valley, will have a couple of new homes on display during the Festival, with more information at the Visitor Center at the base of Eagle Ridge.

For more information on the upcoming show, go to www.spokanefestivalofhomes.com.