Offering great homes at a reasonable price is how one Chesapeake housing development is off to a great start, according to the Virginian-Pilot. Culpepper Landing is attracting price-conscious buyers by taking details that are typically in luxury homes and putting them into smaller houses.

This is a good sign for homeowners in the area, because attracting new residents into new housing developments will aid in boosting the area's home values.

"Tucked away about two miles south of Interstate 64 in Deep Creek, developers have begun work on a community aimed at the current sweet spot of the new homes market: price-conscious buyers.

Culpepper Landing, a 488-acre project of Robinson Development Group between the edges of the Great Dismal Swamp and its canal, has homes with prices that start at about $234,000 for a 1,400-square-foot rowhouse and go up to a little more than $500,000.

The strategy seems to be working. So far this year sales and interest have been strong at the community, said Tim Culpepper, vice president of Robinson Development.

To date, homebuilders have written contracts on 29 homes in the community and homeowners have moved into nearly a dozen homes there.

'Essentially what we're doing with these houses is taking the details and trim you'd see in a million-dollar home and putting it in a smaller house,' said Culpepper, whose family owned the farmland since 1926.

The site also is the location of this year's Homearama, the Tidewater Builders Association's annual showcase of homes."

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