If you’re hoping to move, you’re generally faced with two options: buying or building. While there isn’t necessarily a “right” choice between the two, there are some key differences that could make one more suitable for you than the other — based on factors like investment, lifestyle, and more.
Let’s talk about the pros and cons of buying vs. building, as well as whether it’s best to buy or build a home in Southern Oregon, specifically.
Buying vs. Building a Home — Pros & Cons
Before we get into the specifics of buying or building in Southern Oregon, let’s take a look at the decision from a broader, more general lens. We’ll walk through it section by section, looking at the benefits and drawbacks of each option.
Buying a Home — Pros
Buying a home is by far the most popular choice among homeowners. It’s generally seen as the simplest route, offering these three main benefits:
- There’s no wait for construction time.
- There are more lots in developed residential areas.
- It’s generally more affordable.
However, some of these benefits are highly dependent on the condition of the real estate market. For example, in today’s congested market, it might take you the same amount of time to build a new home as it would to find and buy an existing one.
The value of these benefits can also depend on what your wishes are for your home. For example, you may not want to move into a highly developed residential area. Instead, you might prefer a more secluded and less populated area where there is plenty of land available. Or perhaps you’d like your home to match your unique stylistic preferences — something you probably won’t get by buying an existing home, unless you put a good amount of money into renovations.
Buying a Home — Cons
All that said, buying a home can have its disadvantages as well, especially in the seller’s market we’re currently in. You’ll want to be aware of and watch out for the following things:
- It’s stressful. House hunting and bidding wars can be time-consuming and stressful, and they’re more likely to happen than not in today’s real estate market. This could result in having to pay way over market value in order to secure your new home.
- You’ll have to make compromises. You won’t get everything you want out of an existing home unless you put time, effort, and money into renovating it.
- You may have more maintenance requirements. Older, existing homes often come with more maintenance issues than new builds.
Building a Home — Pros
Building a new home isn’t always the most popular choice, but it does have the potential to be the most rewarding one. Here are a few benefits of building a home, rather than buying one:
- You can get what you want. By building a home from scratch, you have near-total control and customization abilities with things like design, finishes, and amenities.
- You don’t have to deal with competing buyers. There’s no stress in wondering whether or not you’ll get the home you want.
- You can reduce your home’s environmental impact. There are more energy-efficient, healthy, sustainable building materials now than there ever have been.
- Fewer maintenance requirements. When built well, newer homes generally require less upkeep (and at The Vineyards at Stage Pass, our teams can point you to the best home builders in the Rogue Valley!).
- It can be fun! Designing the home you love from start to finish can be an extremely rewarding and enjoyable experience.
Building a Home — Cons
So what’s the catch? Well, depending on your unique situation, there may be a few drawbacks to building a home, including:
- It might take more involvement on your end. Building a home can involve a lot of documentation, planning, and communication — unless you work with an experienced design-build team or architect and contractor who can handle it for you.
- It can be more expensive. However, this totally depends on your project scope, what the real estate market is like, and what your financing terms entail.
- You might need to plant landscaping. If it’s not there already, you may need to grow some grass and plant some landscaping features — but this allows you to make your yard your own. And at The Vineyards at Stage Pass, you just have to worry about your home — we’ll have the rest of the surrounding landscaping and maintenance taken care of!
Should I Buy or Build a Home in Southern Oregon?
We’ll be honest — the real estate market in Southern Oregon has been a bit hectic lately. Appraisal numbers have risen, and homes have started flying on and off the market faster than we’ve seen in a while.
Those numbers may start to stagnate as we get further into 2022, but it’s still looking like a fairly unstable time to buy a home in Southern Oregon. The congested seller’s market has made the house hunting, bidding, and buying processes quite stressful. While you may find more luck looking in populated city areas, those locations might not catch all of the Rogue Valley’s natural beauty and charm.
Instead, you may find it more advantageous to build a home in Southern Oregon. By choosing to build, you’ll be able to pick a more ideal location — possibly further away from densely populated areas and closer to breathtaking mountains, aromatic vineyards, rushing rivers, and more.
Better yet, you could find an open lot at a master-planned community, like ours at Stage Pass. With that added benefit, you’ll be able to build a custom home with an expert architect and contractor, get all of the amenities you’d like, and enjoy the privacy and peace you need to live a more relaxed lifestyle, while never being too isolated from nearby cities and adventures. There’s truly no option more rewarding and all-encompassing than this — you’ll just have to discover the magic for yourself.
Interested in exploring a day in the life at Stage Pass? Check out our previous blog post here.
Build Your Dream Southern Oregon Home at Stage Pass
Thinking of making the move to Southern Oregon? With today’s real estate market and everything Southern Oregon has to offer, we believe that building a home here is the best choice — and you can do it right here at The Vineyards at Stage Pass. Choose from any of our gorgeous, amenity-filled lots and work with our architect and builder to create the amazing custom home you’ve always dreamed of. Contact us today to learn more or schedule a private tour.
