photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The newly-constructed home at 1111 New Jersey Street, pictured on April 23, 2026, is one of 19 entries in the upcoming Lawrence Spring Parade of Homes.

When it comes to Lawrence’s Spring Parade of Homes — even in notoriously weather-fickle Kansas — the “spring” has sometimes been easier to come by than the “homes” for this annual event.

In 2022, there were so few new homes on the Lawrence market that the parade was cancelled, and in 2024 there were fewer than 10 homes on the parade. Last year was only slightly better with 13.

The event is set to return this weekend and next weekend, and organizers are happy to report there will be 19 entries on the parade.

“We have not had a tour this big in many years,” said Bobbie Flory, executive director of the Lawrence Home Builders Association, which organizes the parade.

The parade, though, isn’t necessarily a sign that Lawrence’s home construction industry has bounced back from what was a record-low number of home starts in 2025. A closer look at the parade lineup provides a clue that it hasn’t: Nearly half of all the homes are outside of Lawrence. Baldwin City has seven homes on the tour, and Eudora has two.

But that means Lawrence has 10 homes on the parade, and Flory said that is because there is brand new neighborhood that has come online in the city. The Beth’s Ranch subdivision near the southeast corner of Sixth Street and George Williams Way now has people living in it.

As the Journal-World has reported, Beth’s Ranch has lots for more than 100 new homes, with about 25 of them being traditional single family homes, and the rest of them coming in the form of townhomes, also known as duplexes.

Several of the Lawrence homes on this year’s tour are in the new northwest Lawrence neighborhood, but there are offerings on display elsewhere too. There’s also variety in terms of prices and design. Home prices on the parade range from $299,950 for a townhome to $669,900 for an ultra modern home. And here’s a twist for you: The nearly $700,000 home is not in west Lawrence neighborhood like you might expect. Instead, it is in the heart of East Lawrence in the 1100 block of New Jersey Street.

“It is a contemporary-style house in a very mature neighborhood,” Flory said of the David Clemente-built home at 1111 New Jersey Street.

Flory said that seeing the unexpected is one of the things she loves about the parade of homes. She said builders often show off new trends, test out bold color schemes, and generally give visitors plenty to talk about.

Flory stressed those visitors don’t have to be in the market for a home. People who just want to look at homes, even if they have not intention of buying one, are encouraged to take the tour. As for the tour, a listing and map of the homes can be found at lhba.net. The tour runs from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and again on May 2 and May 3. There is no cost to view any of the homes, and you can go to as many or as few of the homes as you like.

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While the number of homes in the Parade of Homes event was encouraging to organizers, the latest numbers for new housing starts in Lawrence were more of a mixed bag.

Lawrence City Hall issued just 10 building permits for single-family construction during the first quarter of the year. That’s down from 14 permits during the first quarter of 2025, which means Lawrence is on pace to set another record-low in single family construction. Lawrence issued just 36 single family building permits last year.

However, single family homes aren’t the only type of homes being considered by builders these days. As Lawrence has created new development codes that encourage greater density, duplex construction is becoming more common. Building permits for duplex construction were up during the first quarter of 2026. Lawrence officials issued 17 duplex permits, compared to eight during the same period a year ago.

There’s a lot of year left, and the spring and summer seasons usually are the busiest for new housing starts. So, it is too early to say whether Lawrence’s building community will have a bounce back year.

It is not too early to say, though, that Lawrence has gotten off to a much slower start than most communities in the Kansas City metro area. The Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City has released figures through February, and Lawrence is trailing almost every major community in the metro, despite Lawrence having three months of building permit totals while the KC communities only have two months recorded.

Single family home construction in the entire K.C. metro for the first two months of the year is up 34% compared to the same period a year ago. Compare that to Lawrence’s single family numbers, which are down by more than 25%.

For some of the larger communities in the metro, it is to be expected that they are going to have more home building activity than Lawrence. But communities much smaller than Lawrence also are posting numbers equal to or greater than Lawrence. Here’s a look at single family permit numbers for January through February for select KC communities:

• Olathe: 79

• Overland Park: 72

• Spring Hill: 44

• Gardner: 37

• Lenexa: 31

• Kansas City, Kan.: 23

• Basehor: 15

• Tonganoxie: 11

• Leawood: 10

• De Soto: 5

• Shawnee: 3

Flory, with the Lawrence Home Builders Association, said she thinks there is a chance for Lawrence home building activity to pick up later this year, but builders are closely watching mortgage interest rates and buyer attitudes before deciding how many more homes to build.

While the interest rate issue is impacting everybody across the country, builders in Lawrence are watching a unique issue that could be impacting buyer sentiment locally. Lawrence has implemented a new development code that is encouraging smaller lot sizes and more densely developed neighborhoods. Builders have been constructing new homes in that style, but now are waiting to see how buyers respond to the more compact, denser development, Flory said.

“If the inventory that is out there moves, I think you are going to see more of it,” Flory said of the prospect of future building activity. “But I think this also is going to be a real interesting test to see how the new development code is embraced.”