The 56th year for the new home showcase features 10 fully decorated and landscaped homes in a variety of architectural styles. The homes, which range in price from $900,000 to more than $1 million, are located at Kensington, a premier luxury new home community at 5780 Fields Ertel Road in Deerfield Twp.
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That’s a township that accrued 30 single-family permits in February, surpassing for the first time longtime leader Liberty Twp., a Butler County community that had 28 permits that month, according to the most recent data available from the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati.
“I think for a lot of the reasons that the other areas have been popping in both Butler and Warren counties is just the availability of land,” said HBA Executive Director Dan Dressman. “I think there are great locations, good accessibility and solid employment growth in those areas and that leads to a desire for more homes.
“When you get back in there, it’s a large enough community that you really feel like you’re away from everything. It’s really peaceful back in that community.”
It also helps, he said, that the Kensington is located in Mason City Schools, one of Ohio’s top-rated school districts.
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Dressman said he expects Deerfield Twp. to soon consistently surpass Liberty Twp. in single-family permits “just because of what I’ve heard as far as communities that are on the drawing board.”
“There’s more land available (in Deerfield),” he said. “It really comes down to that.”
The location for this year’s show is just off Field Ertel Road between Snider Road and Wilkens Boulevard, making it easily accessible to Interstate 71 and Interstate 275, Dressman said. It also is near much of the burgeoning business activity in the area, he said.
Home builders for this year’s Homearama include Classic Living Homes, Justin Doyle Homes, J&K Custom Homes, John Candle Homes, Robert Lucke Homes, WP Land Company and Wieland Builders with one home each and Fischer Homes with three homes.
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Homearama last had 10 homes in the 2014 show at Carriage Hill in Liberty Twp., Dressman said.
Kensington is an English garden-inspired community, with tree-lined boulevards, a pool and cabana, along with 23 acres of green space lined with walking trails and landscaped gardens.
The community consists of 142 single-family homes in varying price points.
Greg Berling, the developer for Kensington — a joint effort between him, Greg Fischer and Ken Campbell — said the appeal of developing in Deerfield Twp., and of Kensington itself, is the convenient location.
“Deerfield Twp. and our development are on the southern side of Warren County,” Berling said. “It gives our new and future residents close access to all the amenities that that entails.”
That includes being relatively close to downtown Cincinnati and the jobs that are there and in Deerfield Twp. and Warren County, plus Deerfield’s 460 acres of parks and Mason City Schools.
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Despite Deerfield’s March surge, which put it at 52 single family home permits for the first quarter of 2019, it didn’t dethrone Liberty Twp., which had 57 permits filed in that 3-month span.
Although Butler County saw a 17.5 percent surge single-family home permits for the first quarter of the year, single-family permits were down 5.2 percent from last year through March, according to the HBA, going from 671 through March 2018 to 636 through March of this year.
The other three counties tracked in the region experienced single-family permit improvements during the first quarter, but still saw decreases from last year. Hamilton County experienced the most significant drop (23.7 percent), while Warren County dipped 1.7 percent and Clermont County was down 11.9 percent.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Homearama 2019
WHERE: Kensington, a premier luxury new home community, 5780 Fields Ertel Road, Deerfield Twp.
WHEN: June 8-June 23
HOURS: 4 to 10 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays and noon to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
MORE INFO: visit cincyhomearama.com/event/homearama-2019
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