Kitchen with Island, Sink, Cabinets, and Hardwood Floors in New Luxury Home, with View of Living Room, Dining Room, and Outdoor Patio

The area’s biggest summer event for home builders, homebuyers, and home lovers in general—the Central Oregon Builders Association Tour of Homes—returns for its much-anticipated July engagement.

This year’s tour features 53 homes throughout various Central Oregon communities—including Brasada Ranch, Eagle Crest, Caldera Springs, River Vale, Broken Top, and Bend’s new Tree Farm—and the public is invited to attend. The free tour runs the weekends of July 12–14 and July 19–21 from noon to 6 pm Friday and 10 am to 5 pm Saturday and Sunday.

Central Oregon Builders Association (COBA) home builders who have participated in the Tour of Homes call it their best marketing opportunity of the year. Homebuyers can get a firsthand look at the craftsmanship of local builders and subcontractors at their leisure in a self-guided tour that shows off the latest directions in architecture and home building as well as interior design and landscaping. Even those not in the market for a home can see new trends in design and materials—for their own interest or for future reference when they are looking to buy or remodel.

Mike Arnett, a certified master builder who is president of Lifestyle Homes, said his company values the opportunity to come to Central Oregon and participate in the Tour of Homes.

“Lifestyle Homes looks forward to the COBA Tour of Homes every year, whether we present our own homes on the tour or preview other homes in the region. It’s an unbeatable marketing opportunity, a prestigious group of quality builders, and tremendously well received by tourists from all over the West Coast. If you build in Central Oregon, you would be wise to get in this show.”

The numbers over the years have certainly borne out the public’s enthusiastic reception of the event. Mandy Weidman, COBA’s senior vice president operations and sales manager, said around 8,000 to 10,000 visitors from Central Oregon and across the Northwest participate in the tour, the largest multi-site tour in the state. The tour’s website gets traffic from all 50 states and from outside the country, she noted.

Many people choose to make a whole weekend excursion out of the Tour of Homes and plan out their routes for each day. The guide includes maps of the homes in different communities so that visitors can plot their routes, should they wish to focus on a particular price range or a specific area.

The tour allows builders to home in on notable trends and features popular among homebuyers and present options that may well become future wish lists. Showcasing a home on the tour can enhance the luster and visibility of builders’ and subcontractors’ businesses.

“The tour subcontractors and builders truly are the best of the best in the industry. To be able to present their hard work throughout the year to the community is a great way to display their final product,” Weidman said.

The variety of homes on this year’s tour includes a great mix of cottages, tiny homes, and townhomes all the way up to luxury million-dollar homes. The prices of homes on the tour range from $319,990 to more than $2 million. Over 20 percent of the homes on the tour are priced at $1 million or more.

Taking part in the annual Tour of Homes means a great deal to many COBA members, both tangibly and intangibly. Greg Garrick, who handles sales and marketing for Norman Building & Design, expressed a sentiment shared by many builders who participate.

“Opening our homes on the tour, sharing the dreams of our clients come to life is always a thrill. It also allows our team to hear from others what they think, to share their craft, if you will. It has been a great team builder for sure. We look forward to sharing our home—it is the unique expression of our clients’ thoughts and style and reflects how they want to live in Central Oregon.”

Since its inception, that is one thing the COBA Tour of Homes has accomplished beautifully: envisioning, embodying, and responding to the way people want to live in Central Oregon.