It looks like you're new here. I appreciate you stopping by! Feel free to throw down some graffiti on my wall by adding a comment to this post! And, if you like what you see, please subscribe to the feed and I'll deliver all my new content, right to you! Thanks for visiting!

The 2008 Parade of Homes in Denver kicked off last week, and will run through Labor Day.  The Parade is an annual showcase of high end homes, with trendy, high end finishes.

This years version is hosted at Solterra, in Lakewood, Colorado.  (Click here for map and directions)  The subdivision is brand new, and will be a great little community.  Located on the far west side of Metro Denver, at approximately C-470 and Alameda, it sits atop some high ground with good views to the south.  Unfortunately, it is currently a bunch of vacant lots (sans the Parade homes), and with the housing market in it’s present state, that will be the case for a few years.  So don’t look for many amenities, such as grocery stores, moving in any time soon.

Historically, the Parade has been a great place to see the latest trends in design and architecture.  But recently, it has become an effort to “one-up” the next guy.  Who can put in the biggest home theater etc…

The biggest trends I saw:

• Fabulous Outdoor Living Spaces.  These homes added a ton of liveable sq. ft. outside of the main home in the form of covered patios and decks, etc.  Included outdoors are kitchens, grills, entertainment areas with TV’s etc.
• Large Sliding Glass Doors to Access the outdoor space. The outdoor space was married to the indoor space with large (some up to 12 ft. wide) openings from the home to the patio/deck.  I really liked this feature and believe it will continue to be a dominating trend in the future.
• HUGE Wine Cellars. Not so new, but a continuation of bigger and better wine cellar/tasting rooms.
• Smaller Home Theaters.  Home theaters have gotten smaller, and certainly not as important to the whole design/build concepts being used.
• Smaller Bedrooms.  All bedrooms seem to be getting smaller, and not taking up as much of the homes square footage.  The masters still offer great bath and closet space, but the actual bedrooms are trending smaller.

So is this years Parade of Homes worth a darn?

Last years Parade of Homes was a huge bust, with very few of the homes actually selling, and a couple even ending up in Foreclosure.  I’m sad to say, this year may be no different.  I was very disappointed in the properties! Check out some mini tours of a few of the homes.

These homes are OVERPRICED for what you get.  The location is OK, but not great, the community is one of $500,000+ homes, not $2,000,000.  They are pretty nice, but the bottom line is if you are looking to spend $2,000,000 +/- on your next home, stick to Cherry Hills, Greenwood Village, and many of the old Denver neighborhoods!