New Construction - Benefits and Pitfalls!

New Construction can be fun and creative. We love having a new home built and being able to select all of the colors and materials used,
but their are downsides to new construction.

A new community that has just started construction will be under construction continuously for several years. 
Some large developments can take 10 to 15 years.

Constant construction surrounding your property can lead to the following problems:
Lots of trash blowing into your yard from the homes under construction
Lots of dust inside your home
Dirt on your cars and other items outside on a porch.
Weeds!  The seeds from weeds on surrounding empty lots or construction sites blow into your yard so that you are constantly pulling weeds.
Flat tires on your cars due to nails and other construction debris in the road - get Road Hazard Insurance on your tires!
Noise at all hours of the day and night.  (A dumpster company came to pick up the construction container at 2AM, 3AM, and 5AM on a Saturday with the beeping backup noise and grinding gears.)  Only gated communities with a full time gate guard can adequately enforce constrution hours.

Prices in a new construction area tend to be lower to begin with, then increase by a larger percent in the middle of construction.
So if you buy early in the development life, you get a better price, but have to live with the mess longer.
As the development becomes popular & well known there may be a surge in the price for the last few new construction homes available as the development reaches it's final phases. 
When the area is complete and the builders and developers leave, it may be harder to sell an existing home because they are no longer drawing a lot of traffic to the area.
This evolutionary path can change as the housing market changes.  Often, people cannot wait for a home to be built.

Some of the best values for homes in the current market of late 2006 is existing builder inventory homes in developments that are close to completion where the builder wants his capital back and no longer has an onsite Sales Agent in the community.