Dear Barefoot at Last:
You are so right to encourage prospective new residents of TV to compare "Apples to Apples". Many "wannabees" are crying in their beer that resales are overpriced, but they're not doing their homework and making the TRUE comparisons you are talking about.
When prospective new residents are looking at new homes down here...they need to ADD on the price of the bond...which in the new areas is more that 2.5 times (and going up weekly!!) what it was in the "new" areas in 2005. This is a CONSIDERABLE amount of $$$. Yes, the price of new homes "looks" good and the incentives "look" good, but think about it...are the developers really going to give you something for nothing? Don't think so!!! Somewhere along the line...you're paying for it. Friends from up north recently purchased new in Duvall and had so many extra and hidden costs (all given impressive names) in their closing costs (Much more than we had 2 years ago) it was a joke...not to mention a $28K bond on a ranch home. By the time it was all said and done even they had to admit they had been "Taken Down The Road" and would have been much better off buying one of the "overpriced" re-sales they had looked a...which, in the end, turned out to be NOT so overpriced after all. We tried to tell them...but the "fairy dust" in the air plugged their auditory canals. Now they're making daily trips to Lowes and Home Depot to add all the things they didn't get with their NEW home and calling around to get landscaping, blinds, garage door openers, floor done in garage attic...all of which would have come already done in one of the "overpriced" resales. AHHHHHH as they say, hindsight is 20/20!!!!
Bottom line: Compare "Apples to Apples" as Barefoot at Last suggests.