Duets leave a new footprint in housing market

Duets, paired homes, town homes in twos these are just a few of the names duplexes are being called these days.

"It sounds a bit nicer," says Eric Gibbons, Reno's director of land use for Centex Homes, a subsidiary of the Dallas, Texas-based Centex Corp."Duplex has a negative connotation.

The word, duet, especially, is a little more charming."

And the word is being used more frequently these days, as duets crop up in new developments from Somersett to Sparks to south Reno, opening their doors in all segments of the residential real estate market, from luxury to affordable.

And there's more coming, says Gary Mayo, vice president and regional manager for Toll Brothers, a national corporation based in Pennsylvania.

"With what's happening with the price of raw land,we'll see a turn to more duets as an affordable solution." Nevada's two largest metropolitan areas, Reno and Las Vegas, are prime for duets, he adds, because both are ringed by Bureau of Land Management acreage an effective barrier to unabated urban sprawl.

Says Gibbons: "As land tightens, prices rise, and you either raise the cost of the house or density goes up." Depending on the minimum lot size under development, the number of duets that can fit on a piece of land can be double that of single family homes, says Beth A.

Bridges, sales and marketing manager for Californiabased Silverwing Development.

Duets offer elements of both the condominium design and the town home package.

Like a condominium, a duet typically has a homeowner's association that takes care of landscaping and exterior maintenance.

Like a town home owner, the duet owner holds title to both the structure and the land it's built on.

The wall between the two sides of a duet typically include a one-inch airspace, so there is no true common wall."The two walls makes the wall your wall," says Gibbons, which may be a psychological selling point.

But it's also good for sound dampening.

Centex's duet homes,Aspen Leaf, priced in the low $200,000s, include two walls.

And customer resistance to the idea of a duplex? Not a problem, says George Mageras, director of sales at the Village at Town Center, a Monterey Development Group project at Somersett.

The duets are townhouses built in twos, he says.

Customers who seek town home living are equally drawn to duets.

And there's an advantage, he says.With a duet, both sides are end cuts.No one ends up in the middle of the row.

"A lot of buyers today are not interested in big yards," says Mageras, another reason that duets are selling well.

"People are busy."

His customers for the Village duets at Somersett, which sell in the low $300,000s, are empty-nesters and young retired people, along with some families.His group has sold 100 out of the 139 homes in the project and is planning another duet development near the Del Webb project in Somersett.

In south Reno, the Toll Brothers duet project, Dorado at Damonte Ranch, is also selling like hotcakes, says Mayo.And it's a luxury product priced in the $500,000s.

Toll Brothers' reason to go duet on this particular project, he says,was not densitydriven.

It was streetscape-driven.

The lots are 50 feet by 120 feet, a narrow configuration.

From the street, the garages would have dominated in a conventional single family home.

By connecting them at the garage, the planners could face one garage forward, one sideways, to present a more charming housefront.

But, he says, the choice of duet design did not affect the project's density.

So far, the duet design is working out fine, too.

The 94-unit project has sold all 24 units so far released.

It expects to sell all within the next 14 months.And it has not even broken ground yet on a model for the duet homes.

Buyers in this luxury duet market have been young working professionals, along with some second-home buyers, says Mayo.

Says Bridges: Her firm is finding that at the other end of the market - entry level, sales are also brisk.

The developer is selling the last of its 114 Villas at Sky Vista duets in Sparks.

Those were priced in the mid- to upper- $100,000s.

And the company is set to build another duet project, The Cottages, in Reno, this fall.

While duets are selling in the new home market, old duplexes still hold investor interest, says John Graham, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Plummer Realty.

"That end of the market is robust," he says.

Traditionally, duplexes were great for rentals, he adds, and investors sought them out.

Investors are discouraged from the new duet market, though, says Gibbons.At least in Centex developments.

Buyers must qualify as primary residents to buy an Aspen Leaf duet.