New Home Inc Wins 3 Awards at the 2026 Triangle Parade of Homes

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What did New Home Inc win at the 2026 Parade of Homes? Three awards from the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County. The Wendell took Silver and The Apex took Bronze, both at Cattail. The Raleigh took Bronze at Fish Hawk Ranch in Willow Spring.

Every fall, the Parade of Homes gives Triangle buyers a rare chance to walk through dozens of brand-new homes in a few weekends. It also gives builders something harder to come by: an independent panel of judges looking closely at what we built and how well we built it.

This year, we entered five homes in the 2026 Triangle Parade of Homes, judged in Wake County by the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County. Three of them came home with awards. We're proud of that, and we're even prouder of what the judges were responding to: homes designed around how people actually live, not around a spec sheet.

If you're shopping for new homes in Raleigh NC, here's what won, why it matters, and how to put our Parade promotion to work before it ends on October 31.

Our 2026 Parade of Homes Award Winners

Parade awards are judged within price categories. That means each award reflects how a home stood out against other new homes at a similar price point, which is exactly the comparison most buyers are making. Two of our three awards came in the same category, the $786,000 to $875,000 range, where The Wendell and The Apex placed second and third.

The Wendell: Silver Award at Cattail

The Wendell is an English Country home on a private 0.70-acre homesite on the Cattail Peninsula. At 3,254 square feet with four bedrooms and three and a half baths, it was designed for buyers who want room to spread out without giving up privacy.

Sliding glass doors open the main living area to an extended grill deck, so the kitchen, family room, and outdoor space work as one area when you're entertaining. The owner's suite is on the main level and includes a zero-entry super shower. A flexible office behind double doors handles work-from-home days now and can become a hobby room or guest space later.

The Wendell sits in Cattail, our lake community with an 85-acre lake, a private boat launch, and a resort-style pool. It was listed at $859,700 during the Parade, so ask our team about current availability. If you're exploring new homes in Clayton NC, Cattail is where our largest homesites and lake access come together.

The Apex: Bronze Award at Cattail

The Apex is a 3,017-square-foot Georgian-style model with four bedrooms and three baths. Vaulted café ceilings and oversized windows fill the open layout with natural light.

Flexibility drives this plan. A double-pocket office and a game room can shift roles as a household changes, and an extended covered patio with a stone fireplace makes outdoor living practical well into a North Carolina winter. The Apex is also the award winner you can most easily make your own, since the plan is available in three of our communities right now. More on that below.

The Raleigh: Bronze Award at Fish Hawk Ranch

The Raleigh earned Bronze in the $686,000 to $730,000 category. It's a 3,215-square-foot Farmhouse model with three baths, starting with a wrap-around front porch that sets the tone before you reach the door.

Inside, café windows and a bumped-in fireplace with built-ins give the main living area real character. Flex space shows up throughout the plan: a first-floor office, a second-floor home gym, and a covered screened porch. The owner's suite opens to its own private patio.

The Raleigh is located in Fish Hawk Ranch in Willow Spring, in southern Wake County. For buyers comparing new homes in Willow Spring NC, it's the best way to see our Farmhouse design in person. You can also read our guide to new construction in Willow Spring for more on the area.

What Award-Winning Design Looks Like in Everyday Life

Awards are nice. What matters more is why these homes scored well. All three share design decisions our team builds in as standard features, not add-ons.

The Messy Kitchen. This is a second, working kitchen space tucked behind the main one. In The Raleigh, it has its own sink and window. Meal prep, small appliances, and dirty dishes live there, so the main kitchen stays ready for guests.

Zero-entry showers. A curbless shower has no ledge to step over. That makes daily life easier now, and it means the owner's suite keeps working if mobility changes years down the road.

Smart Door Delivery Center and smart home technology. Each of our award-winning homes includes a secure delivery center and built-in smart home technology, included rather than sold as an upgrade.

What you don't see. Underneath the finishes, every home we build gets independent HERS energy testing, TechShield radiant barrier roof decking to keep attic heat down, MERV 11 whole-home air filtration, and Eco Select energy certification verified by a third party. Judges notice the floor plan first. You notice these on your utility bill and in the air you breathe.

This is what we mean by a personalized home builder. We bring the planning discipline and buying power to deliver these features efficiently, and we design each home around the specific ways our buyers live.

Our Parade of Homes Promotion Ends October 31

The Parade weekends are over, but our Parade of Homes Promotion runs through October 31, 2026, and it applies at every active New Home Inc community, not just the Parade homes. It has two pieces, and they stack.

The first is $10,000 toward closing costs or design selections, your choice. If cash to close is your hurdle, put it there. If your home is still being built and your closing cash is covered, design selections are where that money goes furthest.

The second is a rate buydown. Move-in ready homes qualify for up to $25,000. Homes under construction and homes we haven't started yet qualify for up to $20,000. The two buydown tiers don't combine with each other, but the $10,000 works with either one.

A few terms matter. The promotion requires our preferred lender and a preferred closing attorney where applicable, it's based on full-price offers, and it can't be combined with other offers. A buydown lowers your monthly payment, not your loan balance, so how long you plan to stay in the home matters. Our full breakdown of the Parade of Homes Promotion walks through a real payment example, and you can estimate your own monthly payment in a couple of minutes.

Move-In Ready Homes in Two Award-Winning Plans

If you liked what the judges liked, you don't have to build it from scratch. Two of our award-winning plans are available right now as finished or nearly finished homes, which is the fastest way to own one.

The Apex is available in three communities. At Cattail, 36 Henry Crest Drive is move-in ready now, listed at $644,700 with 2,999 square feet. It's the same plan as our Parade model, and because it's finished, it qualifies for the full $25,000 buydown tier. At Parkers Landing in Zebulon, 219 Sweetfern Lane is listed at $589,700 with an October move-in date. If you're comparing new homes in Zebulon NC, that puts the plan on Raleigh's eastern edge. At Duncan's Creek in Lillington, 129 Bluestone Drive is listed at $489,700, also with an October move-in date. That's more than 3,000 square feet for under $490,000.

The Raleigh is available at Cattail, too. 175 Isabelle Valley Drive is listed at $774,700, with four bedrooms, three baths, 3,215 square feet, and both a primary suite and a guest suite on the main level. It's the same Farmhouse plan that took Bronze at Fish Hawk Ranch, set inside the lake community. Prices come from our current quick move-in listings and can change.

Same Apex plan, $155,000 apart from Cattail to Duncan's Creek. That spread is bigger than anything in the promotion, so it's worth touring more than one town before you decide.

A move-in ready home gives you a finished, inspected home on a known timeline, which matters if you're working around a lease end or a school year. The trade-off is that most design selections are already made, so the $10,000 usually works hardest as a closing credit on these homes. Homes sell quickly this time of year, and our quick move-in homes list updates as they do.

Visit the Award Winners

The best way to judge a home is to stand in it. Our Cattail model and our Fish Hawk Ranch model are staged and open, and our team can walk you through the promotion and every available home on the same visit.

Explore all of our new home construction Raleigh NC communities, or call or text us at 919-420-3266 to schedule a tour before October 31.