In case you live in a bubble, and have yet to see the signs all around Tyler this week, The annual Parade of Homes is about to start again in our area. Every year for fifty seven years now the Parade of homes puts newly built or remodeled houses on display for East Texans. Of course the houses open for display are generally up- scale and therefore more expensive residences.  Brought to you by Sherwin Williams and the Tyler Area Builders Association, Tyler’s parade of homes begins today, June fifth and runs through the fifteenth. Of the twenty eight homes on display this year half have already been sold. This year’s parade takes the visitor all over East Texas, from Lindale, to Chandler to Tyler, Whitehouse, and Flint, even all the way out to Bullard.  Each year a part of the proceeds for the event are given to a local charity. The recipient of this year’s donation will be the Azleway Boys’ Home and Breckenridge Village, in Tyler.

The question for the average East Texan becomes, is this really an event I’ll enjoy, or is it merely for those in real-estate or with the income to potentially invest in a more high- end pricey home? The answer is no; for the person who enjoys watching HGTV, (Home and Garden Television) or any of the plethora of home design or home decorating shows on TLC (The Learning Channel), or DIY Network (Do It Yourself), this is a do not miss event! For those people, and I am nominally one of them, the trick seems to be to hit the high points, by which I mean the bigger more expensive homes. Forgive the crude metaphor, but a friend of mine calls this house pornography. It’s for most of us, an unrealistic picture of the ideal home and life, with all kinds of superficial extras that don’t really matter, although it’s fun to imagine owning them.

For those who are actually interested in building or otherwise investing in more moderately priced real-estate, the tour has a number of more realistic designs and models on display in order to offer ideas and inspiration to the visitor. And keep in mind by the way that in comparison to the rest of the country, the Texas real-estate market is relatively healthy. So my advice overall is simply this, leave your own vanity and materialist impulses at the door as much as possible, then go window shopping. Enjoy the larger display homes like you would a museum; and then return home to your average Tyler area residence grateful for your own blessings and for the fact that you don’t have to pay the mortgage on those overpriced models you just visited. With that in mind you may sleep better.

For more information of the Tyler area Parade of Homes, and the Tyler Builder’s Association, go to their website at www.tylerareabuilders.com, or http://www.tylerareabuilders.com/whats-happening/parade-of-homes.html.