
YOUR NEW HOME? This home by Steen Development is a part of this 12 months’s Parade of Houses. (Submitted picture)
Whether or not you’re trying to construct a house, purchase a brand new one, rework the one you have already got, or simply do some real-estate dreaming, the forty eighth Annual Chippewa Valley Parade of Houses will supply 14 Eau Claire-area dwellings to discover, in individual and just about.
This 12 months’s occasion, which shall be June 11-18, will showcase 9 new houses and two reworked houses, all of which might be visited in individual, in addition to three digital excursions.
After a number of years within the shadow of the pandemic, Christina Thrun of the Chippewa Valley Homebuilders Affiliation is hopeful that parade attendance can bounce again towards its typical complete of about 5,000. After all, not all of those parade-goers need to purchase new homes.
“I do know lots of the individuals who come by simply wish to see what the brand new design developments are,” mentioned Thrun, government officer of the native homebuilders’ group. They could be in search of new paint colours or inside design concepts, or maybe for lavatory or kitchen reworking inspirations. Transformed houses have been added to the tour lately to cater to the latter group, whereas digital excursions grew to become a necessity when COVID-19 struck in 2020. Each remodels and digital visits at the moment are everlasting elements of the Parade of Houses.
Nonetheless, there’ll loads of alternatives to walk by brand-new houses. A lot of the houses are within the quick Eau Claire space, plus a couple of in outlying locales, together with Lake Hallie and rural Strum. Thrun mentioned the houses vary in worth from $300,000 to greater than $1 million.

VIRTUALLY REAL This dwelling by R. Tews Development & Design might be visited just about. (Submitted picture)
Lots of this 12 months’s houses replicate fashionable design sensibilities, with a give attention to black, white, and grey, together with white oak flooring and black-framed home windows. Thrun mentioned that is in distinction to the extra country-tinged kinds that have been well-liked a couple of years again.
“It looks as if within the 12 months that we misplaced, all the things slipped from farmhouse to fashionable,” she mentioned. When you’ll nonetheless see some rustic beams or shiplap partitions, they’re extra prone to be accents than dominant options on this 12 months’s parade houses.
The 2022 version of the parade shall be considerably small than in years previous, largely due to the influence of nationwide components within the housing market. Within the wake of the pandemic, provide chains are nonetheless working behind, making it more durable for homebuilders to construct and full homes, Thrun mentioned. There’s additionally a scarcity of the expert employees wanted to construct new houses. And a scorching housing market means new houses are in demand and are unlikely to take a seat empty for lengthy.
“We’re so behind on the availability proper now that they’ll’t construct them quick sufficient,” Thrun mentioned affiliation members inform her.
The Parade of Houses begins Saturday, June 11, and runs by Saturday, June 18. Tickets are $8 earlier than June 10 and $10 thereafter, and provides ticket holders entry to in-person tour houses in addition to codes that permit them to view the digital excursions.
Tickets might be bought on-line at paradeofhomescv.com or at RCU places in Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and Menomonie; on the Chippewa Valley Dwelling Builders Affiliation workplace (4319 Jeffers Street); or at tour houses themselves.
For extra info, together with a map, go to paradeofhomescv.com.