Oakwood Homes can’t show you a finished model yet – but could save you a great deal on a roomy, single-family ranch, probably over $100,000, if you’ll expand your search south from Denver, down to Colorado Springs. This Thursday, Feb. 8, is the day Oakwood releases pricing for its new Briarwood Bungalows series of roomy, low-maintenance ranches in Banning Lewis Ranch. You can preview the plans today and if you like what you see, reserve one this Thursday.
“You can expect to be surprised by these prices,” says Miles Bradshaw, who’ll give you a look at the plans Feb. 4, a few blocks from where Oakwood is finishing four models for an opening next month – the most affordable ranch at around 1,400 square feet on a single level; to one thatap near 3,800 square feet, adding on an option for finished basement space.
Expect the starting prices to come in not in the $400s, or even the $300s, but from the high $200s; maybe lower. Denver buyers will be comparing those to minimal new ranch prices in the high $300s in the South Denver area; more likely to new duplex-type ranch plans, one home attached to another, from the mid-$400s in many Denver suburban areas.
These Oakwood plans aren’t duplexes; they’re single-family, each home and its 2-car garage clustered with three others around a common driveway. Oakwood will install landscaping both front-and-back; and Banning Lewis Ranch’s metro district will maintain it, while providing all of the amenities of the master-planned community – at a very low monthly fee.
I was absolutely surprised when I snuck a peek inside one ranch still under construction. I counted three bedrooms on the main level, including an attractive master; a main-floor laundry room, mud-room area to the garage and a nice-sized kitchen-dining-entertainment area, opening to a ‘Colorado Room’ – a patio featuring outdoor living with an indoor feel. Oakwood adds a raised garden and its signature high-tech extras – the energy efficiency features and new ‘Home IQ’ smart-home package, including being able to open your garage or check on front-door visitors from your iPhone.
And you’ll see the attractions of Banning Lewis Ranch, seven miles east of I-25 on Woodmen Road: 50 acres of parks and trails, a Ranch House community center with pool and 24/7 fitness center and a new $2.75 million Aquatic Center that will be exceptionally close to the Bungalow’s very private enclave. Bradshaw says these prices look low enough that he’s talking with Millennial generation buyers about possibilities for a first-home purchase — but of course, the overwhelming interest is from people giving up homes they’ve owed for decades – wanting out of climbing stairs and shoveling snow (some of them moving here to be close to Colorado kids and grandkids).
Here’s how this works: Preview the plans Feb. 4, at Banning Lewis Ranch – less than an hour south of C-470; plenty of time to get back before the game. Take I-25 south past 470 40 miles to Interquest, head east two miles to CO-21, then south on 21 (it becomes Powers Blvd) four miles to Woodmen Road. Head east on Woodmen two miles to Marksheffel, then south a mile to Dublin, east a mile to Vista del Valley, and left to Vista del Pico. If you like what you see, Oakwood releases actual prices and sites this Thursday evening, Feb. 8, 6 p.m. at its Colorado Springs offices, 1290 N. Newport Road, near the airport. Continue south on Powers from Woodmen, nine miles to Aeroplaza Drive, and turn east a block, then south on Newport.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.