In another forum, weren't you considering moving your parents in with you because they couldn't afford their current mortgage if your Dad retired? Do they need 2500 sq ft and a game room? Or were you just trying to compare to a custom home?

Not considering, just spitballing options. The 2500sf house with game room is just a comparison to other homes on the market. They wouldn't need anything even close to that size.

This is more of a general question/curiosity and not necessarily pertaining to my specific situation.

Any tract home buyers or real estate agents want to weight in?

-->Then I went online to see what homes in the area/same development are reselling for. This development started in 2009 and I found six homes on the market that averaged $123sf.--

Be careful. 'What they are reselling for' and 'on the market' are two different things. There can a world of difference between the amount a house is listed for and the amount for which it could be sold. It is not uncommon for me to find $425/sq ft. listings in a neighborhoods where the comps (like sold homes) are in the $250/sq' ballpark. There often isn't anything remarkable about the expensive listings, other than the amount of time they sit on the market without a buyer. You said you took an average of the houses on the market? Consider, if the lowest price/sq. ft. house hasn't sold at their listed price, why would one at the higher "average" price fare better on the market?

Are the resale homes also 'selling like hotcakes'? Sellers want to get the money they spent on the house back. But why would buyers pay that amount for someone else's choices, when they can purchase a new home in the same development, with the features they choose, for a similar amount of money? A few years down the road, when more owners are ready to move on, the competition of having more houses of a similar style on the market may make it more difficult to sell, simply due to the amount of competition.

There are a lot of additional factors to weigh about purchasing a house in a tract that is still under development. It isn't necessarily a bad choice; some developments increase in value after being built out. But established neighborhoods are often easier to gauge the resale environment for the time you expect to list.

We thought tract houses offered a good price for what we got when we bought our first few houses. When we looked at resale homes, the price was high, especially with wanting to throw out the drapes, carpet etc included in the home price to make it fresh and to our taste. Custom construction costs more often because of no economy of scale and because of custom touches and more expensive elements. You and your mother need to decide what is important to her as well as affordable. To me, a retirement home needs to be one story, no stairs, an a manageable size. Having said that, at 73, I still live in the home where we raised our kids and cook all the holiday meals for those who can attend. I can also put them up overnight, which we enjoy.

Gyr_Falcon:
Are the resale homes also 'selling like hotcakes?
I'm not sure but within the zip code and price range, the average days on the market is 69. Selling after three months used to be considered fast. Found that info in a local publication.

Yes, trying to predict competition a few years down the rode is a concern, but getting the best value right now is my conundrum.

Sheilajoyce:
Thank you for your insight. I was hoping someone who has lived in and sold a tract home would weigh in.

Don't forget to think about the extra little things that an existing home might have that a new home won't or might not have. Things like mature or more landscaping, blinds, closet organizers etc. These things add up. Also, is there an HOA and what are the dues? Are they the same for all areas?