Dive Brief:

• If success comes in giving the customers what they want, some of those customers are going to be happy when they do not get the best modern house design that architects and builders can provide.
• There is a niche market for customers who want modern living inside, but who are more comfortable seeing something that looks like it came from another era on the outside.
• Several builders offer the houses, some at high-end price points like Horizon Builders' custom-built ones in the $5 million to $40 million range in the Washington, D.C., area and some like Darling Homes, which has its American Classic series ranging from $200,000 to $400,000.

Dive Insight:

Experience has shown that certain kinds of people like the not-so-new look. Darling Homes' vice president of product development, David Matthews, says the company has learned that an old-looking new home "doesn’t necessarily attract a lot of engineers and accountants. It attracts a lot of entrepreneurs and designers and people who are more fashion-oriented.”