COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — The Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs announced Wednesday that the 2020 Parade of Homes will take place September 11-27. Attendees will be able to visit 25 homes presented by 21 different local builders. Another seven homes can be viewed virtually.
The event typically draws thousands of people over the course of the multi-day event. Danielle Doyle of Jayden Homes serves as the Chair of the Parade of Homes Committee for the HBA and said that her group worked very closely with El Paso County Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly and county attorney Diana May to develop a plan to keep everyone safe.
"They worked with us to put together an event plan so that we could do this in a safe environment," Doyle said.
Attendees will be required to wear masks and will be asked to maintain proper physical distance and refrain from touching items in the homes. The number of Parade visitors allowed into a home will depend on that home's square footage. Hand sanitizer will be provided to builders will create flow-charts to keep guests moving in one direction.
Rather than using paper tickets, visitors will use touch-less virtual tickets which can be scanned by event staff.
"That way there's no handling of tickets, we don't have to worry about the Plexiglas or any of those type things and that'll make things easier," Doyle explained.
This event comes at the end of a busy summer in local residential real estate. The Pikes Peak Association of Realtors reports that a record of 1,978 homes sold in the month of July.
New home construction is also booming with 399 permits pulled for new single-family or patio homes in July. There have been 373 permits issued thus far in August.
"Permits have been coming in left and right pretty much across the board," said Greg Dingrando, Public Information Officer for the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department.
"Single-family homes, we got off to a really hot start in early 2020. They did slow down a little bit whenever the pandemic first hit but now it's just ramping right back up."
In addition to new construction, Dingrando said the permit data show several families have been investing in remodeling their homes during the pandemic.
"Residential alteration permits are high; very, very high," he said. "They've been going up for the past 4 or 5 months now."
Tickets to the 2020 Parade of Homes cost $17 and can be purchased online at SpringsParade.com
