Upper Bracket "Spec Homes"

"Great Room Lite" (And Other Trends)

Where: 4615 Wooddale (in Edina's Country Club neighborhood)
What: new Federal Colonial Revival with 5BR/6BA and over 5,000 FSF
How much: asking price - $1,995,000
When: on market now
Who: list agent - John McDonald; broker - Edina Realty

One of the fun things about upper bracket "spec homes" is that they collect -- under one roof -- all the latest trends, not to mention lots of fun bells & whistles (if you don't know, "spec" means speculative, as in "build it and they will come").

The home featured at today's Exceptional Properties meeting, 4615 Wooddale in Edina's Country Club neighborhood (pictured above), had on display a laundry list of current (and future?) Buyer favorites:

--"Great Room Lite" concept: Combination Kitchen-Family Room-Den; Dining and Living Rooms are laid out more formally.
--Upper level laundry
--Lower level with 9' ceilings (standard is 7'); in-floor heat
--Built-in radon remediation (according to the builder, the cost to install new is $800, vs. $2k-$3k for retrofitting)
--Big, flat panel TV's . . . . everywhere (above fireplaces, bathroom vanities, etc.)
--"Marmoleum flooring" (an all-green variation of linoleum)
--Picture rail moldings . . . on the ceilings! Several rooms used this to define sitting areas directly below
--Lots of bathrooms. In fact, three of the four upstairs bedrooms had private Baths

In addition to all of the above, the home had a "HERS" rating of 52 (that stands for Home Energy Rating System). Even though the range is from 0-100, apparently 52 is a very good score (steep curve!).

And though the illustration above doesn't show it, in the builder's words, the home "scales nicely" with neighboring homes. In other words, it blends in -- style-wise, size-wise, etc. -- rather than sticks out, like so many McMansion's do.

So how much does all this luxury cost in a brand, new 5,000 FSF home in the middle of tony Country Club?

Asking Price is $1.995M.