Seven Cary Houses Take Nine Awards in 2019 Parade of Homes

Cary, NC – Every year, the Triangle Parade of Homes is a way for homebuilders to spotlight new houses, with awards on the line to increase visits from potential buyers. This year, Cary houses took home nine awards, proportionally higher than any other municipality in the running.

Nine Awards for Seven Houses

In this year’s Parade of Homes, houses in Cary won four Gold Awards, three Silver Awards and two Bronze Awards, with gold, silver and bronze given to houses in 21 categories based on house price. All houses in the Parade of Homes are open for free viewings for this final weekend: Friday, October 11 to Sunday, October 13, 2019 from noon to 5 PM.

“It’s the biggest marketing opportunity of the year,” said Gaye Orr, Vice President of the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake. “People are already planning for the 2020 Parade.”

Those award-winning houses are:

• Gold Award-Winning Homes:
  • 1625 Montvale Grant Way by Wagoner Homes
    HBA Raleigh-Wake – Category #16 $851,000 – $925,000
    HBA DOC – Category #9: $859,000 – $960,000
  • 1625 Montvale Grant Way by Wardson Construction
    HBA Raleigh-Wake – Category #18 $1,026,000 – $1,165,000
  • 933 Mountain Vista Lane by Lennar
    HBA DOC – Category # 7: $633,000 – $690,000
• Silver Award-Winning Homes:
  • 1936 Autumn Shade Drive by Legacy Custom Homes
    HBA Raleigh-Wake – Category #16 $851,000 – $925,000
  • 1617 Montvale Grant Way by Upright Builders
    HBA Raleigh-Wake – Category #17 $926,000 – $1,025,000
    HBA DOC  – Category #9: $859,000 – $960,000

• Bronze Award-Winning Homes:
  • 2132 Princeville Drive by Wardson Construction
    HBA Raleigh-Wake – Category #16 $851,000 – $925,000
  • 1621 Montvale Grant Way by Upton & Company Inc.
    HBA Raleigh-Wake – Category #15 $801,000 – $850,000

Seven houses took home the nine awards, with two of the houses – 1625 Montvale Grant Way by Wagoner Homes and 1617 Montvale Grant Way by Upright Builders – entering into the Durham-Orange-Chatham County competition as well as the Raleigh-Wake competition, winning an additional Gold and Silver award respectively.

To keep judging “as fair as possible,” Orr said judges are all from no closer than two counties over and are never local.

“They’re looking at the design of the home, special features, the finish work, anything the builders do differently,” Orr said. “This is also the time when builders take to showcase what they can do and what new material is out there.”

In this year’s judging, Cary nearly swept for houses priced between $851,000 and $960,000, winning all but the Bronze Award for Durham-Orange-Chatham Counties.

Where Are Houses Being Built?

Cary took home nine awards in this year’s Parade of Homes, for a municipality of 58.92 square miles. By comparison, Apex is 101.18 square miles and Fuquay-Varina is 96.93 square miles, both taking home six and seven awards respectively. Cary also had nine awards out of 28 entries, compared to six awards out of 31 entries in Apex, seven awards out of 21 entries in Fuquay-Varina and 17 awards out of 46 entries in Wake Forest.

For that outlier, Wake Forest with 17 awards, Orr said many of those houses were not in the city proper but in the outlying county property. In fact, Orr said a large proportion of the award-winning homes were built on county land.

“Cary had close to the most, because many of its houses were built inside the town limits and not in the county,” Orr said.

Additionally, most of the seven houses were built in West Cary, which is the fastest growing part of the town. In fact, four of the seven houses are all in the same West Cary neighborhood, and Orr said that’s a common practice during the Parade to generate more traffic and attention.

“If more than one Parade home is in a neighborhood, it gets more traffic,” Orr said. “We encourage our builders to submit multiple homes from one neighborhood.”

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Story by Michael Papich. Photos courtesy of the Triangle Parade of Homes.