Price, quality and location key factors

If you're a lucky person ready to buy your dream home, builders will be happy to accommodate you.

Today's Fall Home Show features houses with base prices of $350,000 and up. These range from family homes that have long been the staple of the suburbs -- four bedrooms, 2½ baths and a nice yard -- to mansions and estates with price tags in the millions of dollars.

Glenn E. Davis has been building homes in the Northwest suburbs and Lake County for decades.

His homes in Arlington Heights are priced at more than $1 million.

At White Birch Meadows in Hawthorn Woods, houses start a little lower and lots are also available for $300,000 and up.

Davis said buyers there have still chosen to build homes costing almost $3 million.

While home buyers looking for a custom house designed the way they want it hope to find the most house for the best price, they also appreciate quality, Davis said.

Details that add to the price include the choices of kitchen cabinets and appliances, and custom tiles for many areas of the house.

While showerheads are multiplying, whirlpool tubs in master baths have gotten smaller, he said.

At Coventry Creek Estates in Lake Zurich, Dartmoor Homes is selling houses from 4,236 to 5,062 square feet with prices starting at $715,000. The company also offers a ranch home for a slightly lower price.

Buyers appreciate volume ceilings that give their homes drama, perhaps a curved staircase, four or more bathrooms and at least four bedrooms, said Ron Sova, executive vice president.

Dartmoor will change its plans to suit buyers, he said. They can even add a turret if they want.

"They have to take one of our lots and start with one of our plans," he said.

Other choices that buyers can make include extending the rear of a home, installing a vaulted or tray ceiling and increasing the number of bedrooms, Sova said.

"We encourage dreaming," he said. "We try to take down buyers' ideas and figure out a price for them."

Dartmoor is also building in several other communities and plans to open sales soon at Devonshire Woods Estates in Hoffman Estates.

Ingham Park in Aurora offers a land plan with a country feel, said Ray Wolford, director of sales for Kimball Hill Homes. One of the advantages of this is that homes do not back up to each other. Rather, the windows on the rear of each house look out on open space.

Home features capitalize on the land plan. Optional sun-rooms help with this as do all the windows on the rear of the house, he said.

Because the floor plans are open, buyers are upgrading their kitchens with granite and stainless steel appliances to enhance the area for entertaining and family life, he said.

Sales will start soon at the Enclave at the Reserve at the Merit Club in Libertyville, said Jeri Szatko, director of sales and marketing for Merit Homes.

Szatko said the community's 17 homes will appeal to people who want to keep the amenities they are used to while moving to a smaller home.

"We are offering upscale amenities, not huge size," Szatko said. All of the homes will be ranches or have first-floor master suites, and they will range from 1,900 to 3,000 square feet.

Some of the houses will offer views of the golf course, many will have mature trees and all will have grounds maintenance provided.

Prices start at under $700,000.