The Pros and Cons of Building vs. Buying a Home in Southern Oregon

When looking for a new home, you’re generally faced with two options: buying or building. While there isn’t necessarily a “right” choice between the two, some key differences could make one more suitable for you than the other — based on factors like investment, lifestyle, and more.

Let’s discuss the pros and cons of building vs. buying a home in Southern Oregon so you can determine the best choice for you.

Building vs. Buying a Home in Southern Oregon: The Pros & Cons

Before we get into the specifics of buying or building in Southern Oregon, let’s 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.

Building a Home — Pros

Building a new home isn’t the choice for everyone, but it does have the potential to be the most rewarding option. Here are a few benefits of building a home rather than buying one:

• You can get exactly what you want. By building a home from scratch, you have near-total control and customization abilities with 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 and sustainable building materials now than ever. 
• New-build homes generally require less upkeep and maintenance.
• It can be fun! Designing the home you love from start to finish can be an enriching 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 the following: 

• Can 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. 
• Can be more expensive. However, this depends on your project scope, the real estate market, and what your financing terms entail. 
• You may 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. 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!

Buying a Home — Pros

Buying a home is the most popular choice among homeowners. It’s generally seen as the most straightforward route, offering these three main benefits:

• No wait for construction time.

• More lots in developed residential areas.

• Generally more affordable.

However, some of these benefits are highly dependent on the condition of the real estate market. For example, in today’s 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 your specific vision and wishes for your home. For example, you may not want to move into a highly developed residential area. You might prefer a more secluded and less populated area with plenty of land available. Or perhaps you’d like your home to match your unique stylistic preferences — this is something you probably won’t find by buying an existing home.

Buying a Home — Cons

All that said, buying a home can have its disadvantages as well. 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 paying way over market value to secure your new home. 
• You’ll have to make compromises. You won’t get everything you want from 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.

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. 

The congested seller’s market has made the house hunting, bidding, and buying process 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. 

We have a solution—build a home in Southern Oregon. By building a home vs. buying, you can pick an ideal location 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 The Vineyards at Stage Pass. You’ll be able to build a custom home with an expert architect and contractor of your choice, 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. Are you interested in exploring a day in the life at Stage Pass? Contact our team to schedule a tour today!

Build Your Dream Home at The Vineyards at Stage Pass

Are you 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. We invite you to do it right here at The Vineyards at Stage Pass! 

Choose from any of our gorgeous, amenity-filled lots and work with your preferred 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.