PERRIS, Calif. – Martha Stewart may not be able to pull Southern California out of its housing slump, but the persnickety tastemaker snapped Catalina and Ernie Tamayo out of theirs.
The couple, parents of two, had visited several new subdivisions in south Riverside County, but no house had enticed them to make a move.
After less than a hour touring four models in a far-flung stretch of Perris, the couple recently put down a $4,000 deposit for a yet-to-be built, stone-covered, two-story house with plenty of windows and old-fashioned touches of wainscoting in the living room and glass-fronted cabinets in the kitchen.
That’s because the house, constructed by building giant KB Home, was “inspired” by Stewart’s own home on the coast of Maine. The development, dubbed Olive Grove, is Stewart’s latest brand extension and an effort by Los Angeles-based KB Home to leverage her popularity as a hedge against a slowing market.
“I really enjoy her,” said Catalina Tamayo, a high school teacher and an enthusiastic fan of the lifestyle entrepreneur. “This house is very different from others we’ve seen – it’s very interesting and very East Coast.”
And the price, at just under $400,000 for 2,900 square feet, was, as Stewart might say, a good thing.
“It’s an excellent price for a house like this,” Ernie Tamayo said, leaning against an ebony-stained banister with decorative spindles inside a replica of his prospective home. The median new-home price in Perris in the most recent quarter was $423,900, local analysts said.
The Tamayos were among a steady stream of lookee-loos among the first to step inside production homes carrying the domestic doyenne’s stamp of approval.
Olive Grove’s three models are patterned after Stewart’s own homes in New York, Connecticut and Maine.
Despite her prison term for securities violations and proliferation of branded products, Stewart remains a powerful marketing draw.
By teaming with the home-making superstar, “KB is effectively leveraging her brand image to stand out among the crowd of builders,” said Patrick Duffy, a managing director with industry consultant Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. “I’m sure they planned this well in advance of the slump, so it’s a stroke of luck that it’s working out so well.
“It’s a smart way,” he added, “to increase traffic and could ultimately increase their sales.”
Two other KB communities featuring the same home designs opened last year in Cary, N.C., and Atlanta have been selling like Stewart’s toasted pecan pancakes, according to KB and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.
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