In the Spotlight: Kingston Hills

Gallagher and Henry entered new territory when it unveiled Kingston Hills. After initially making its mark in Chicago neighborhoods and collar suburbs in Cook and DuPage Counties, Gallagher and Henry ventured into Will County for the first time with Kingston Hills, a massive 410-acre site in southwest suburban Homer Township.

Today, Kingston Hills continues leading the charge in Homer Glen. With average lot sizes of 75-by-150 feet, Kingston Hills exemplifies Homer Glen’s village motto – “Community and Nature … in Harmony” – by providing its residents a slice of suburban privacy alongside the amenities and conveniences of modern life.

    • Prices for new single-family homes in Kingston Hills start at $441,800.  
    • Find Kingston Hills: The Kingston Hills community is located immediately east of Bell Road on 151st Street.  
    • Sister Communities: Kingston Hills is one of two Gallagher and Henry communities in Homer Glen. Its sibling community, Goodings Grove, sits approximately one mile north.  
    • Way Back When: Gallagher and Henry first opened sales of Kingston Hills in 1993 with a first phase consisting of 105 homes and capacity for some 800 homes. Early buyers could select from 17 different floor plans with base prices starting at $165,590.  
    • A Mature Community Today: Given Kingston Hills longstanding roots in Homer Glen, the community is fully developed with streetlights and parkway trees as well as the Kingston Hills Park and a community biking trail.  
    • A Homeowner’s Perspective: “Living in Kingston Hills, we’ve gotten the best of both worlds: a peaceful feeling in a quiet community and a vibrant neighborhood with friendly neighbors and access to everything we need,” Joan K. says.  
    • Lifestyle Series Launching Pad: In 2010, Gallagher and Henry tabbed Kingston Hills as the host site of its first Lifestyle Series home plan, the Amberwood ranch. Developed from extensive market research from prospective homebuyers as well as its current homeowners, Lifestyle Series plans include the most sought-after amenities, including open-concept floor plans, three-car garages, brick construction, and substantial storage solutions. Five additional plans have joined the Amberwood in Gallagher and Henry’s Lifestyle Series portfolio, including a second ranch plan called the Fremont.  
    • Fast fact: According to geologists, the rolling hills so prevalent around Kingston Hills owe their presence to the Wisconsin glacier that stalled some 10,000 years ago in this particular patch of northern Illinois.  
    • Super Schools: Kingston Hills families have access to accomplished public schools. Both Homer Community Consolidated School District 33C, which serves some 3,800 preK-8 students, and the 3,800-student Lockport Township High School District 205 outpace state averages in English Language Arts, Math, and Science proficiency scores.  
    • Happy in Homer Glen: In its most recent National Citizen Survey, more than 90 percent of Homer Glen residents rated the village as a “good” or “excellent” place to live and raise a family. Residents also gave the village stellar marks for safety, ease of travel, K-12 education, and the natural environment. Nine out of 10 residents, meanwhile, reported they would recommend living in Homer Glen to others.

Interested in learning more about Kingston Hills? The sales office is open Thursday-Sunday from 9am-5pm. To schedule a visit or to request additional information, please contact the Kingston Hills sales office at (708) 301-1999.

Why the Suburbs are Hot!

The suburbs are having a moment with homebuyers – and it’s a particularly hot one.

As homebuyers’ desires and needs have shifted in the coronavirus age, the appeal of the suburbs has accelerated. Drawn to suburban communities where they can often get more home, more bang for their buck, and more freedom of movement, a growing number of homebuyers are opting for the suburbs as opposed to high-density urban areas.

Swelling interest in the suburbs is particularly notable in new construction and with single-family homes, where sales have jumped more than 25 percent over 2019, according to industry data. Prospective buyers are especially savoring the idea of a never-before-lived-in home as well as one built with energy efficiency and health in mind. At Gallagher and Henry, buyers not only receive those enticing benefits, but can also work with the award-winning homebuilder to redefine spaces according to their needs.

“More and more, we’re seeing people move towards new construction in our suburban communities because of the space, value, and home they can get,” says John Gallagher, whose firm is currently building homes in eight southwest suburban communities.

Shifting Priorities and Needs

As the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has forced people to spend more time at their existing residences, including blending work and home life under one roof, many are seeing that what once seemed tidy and efficient is no longer so.

Buyers are expressing heightened interest in larger homes that include substantial outdoor space, finished basements, and, not surprisingly, home offices and other private rooms where residents can work or otherwise take a meeting. According to a Realtor.com June survey, a home office was the most in-demand new home feature desired by homebuyers and some have even professed a need for two such areas in their next home.

Because of COVID, homebuyers’ wish lists look a bit different than they did at the start of 2020. The home office, in particular, has become a must and something we accommodate in our plans with dedicated home offices and flex rooms as well as dining rooms that we can neatly convert into private workspaces.

Gallagher and Henry’s 2,823-square foot Eden floor plan, for instance, features a large study, a formal dining room, four upstairs bedrooms, and a full basement, a collection of varied spaces that give homeowners ample flexibility to accommodate household needs for daily living, work, and play.

Ditching High Density

With an increase in remote work, many homebuyers have also been untethered from their daily commutes into downtown offices or other commercial destinations. This has heightened the willingness of buyers to push out further from the urban core – or to at least tie their home location to their workplace so tightly – and accelerated interest in suburban living.

According to a recent study by Realtor.com, three out of five homebuyers reported that working at home was influencing the kind of home they desired and the location.

“The ability to work remotely is expanding home shoppers’ geographic options and driving their motivation to buy,” Realtor.com senior economist George Ratiu said in the recent report.

Prospective buyers have also been wooed to the suburbs by the idea of freedom of movement – or, in colloquial terms, more elbow room – in as well as outside of the home. Buyers remain intrigued by the idea of larger yard space as well as more accessible outdoor recreation opportunities.

In Gallagher and Henry’s suburban communities, residents can convert backyards into multi-functional outdoor oases for work, play, dining, and more, while they can also more easily take neighborhood walks and bike rides without needing to dodge a stream of pedestrians or constantly fret over social distancing protocols. In addition, all eight of Gallagher and Henry’s community locations sit nearby various forest preserve sites in Cook, DuPage, and Will Counties.

There’s little doubt that the coronavirus has compelled people to look at their home situation differently and reconsider their priorities, wants, and needs, and that’s put a bright spotlight on new construction in suburban communities like the ones Gallagher and Henry builds in.