Are you a new-home person, wowed by the idea of moving into a newly-constructed home and putting your stamp on it? Or are you an existing-home person, attracted to the charm of a neighborhood that already has a personality?

Fortunately, there is plenty of room for both in today’s home market – and good prices to be had on both ends of the spectrum.

Angela DeMattia, a listing agent with Prudential Carruthers REALTORS® in the Baltimore suburb of Severna Park, Md., sees both kinds of buyers. Sometimes, they aren’t sure whether they’re a new-home or existing-home buyer until they see the home that’s right for them.

“You may see 100 existing homes and none of them are good enough, but with a new home you can design a house around what your needs are,” says DeMattia, who admits a preference for new construction. “But sometimes buyers have expectations, and in the price range they’re getting into they don’t get as much bang for their buck.”

Existing homes can be more affordable per square foot than newly constructed homes, especially if buyers want to personalize new homes with lots of upgrades, according to DeMattia. The affordability of existing homes often allows buyers to expand or remodel later to get exactly what they want, she says.

“With existing homes there’s a convenience factor. Buyers know what they’re getting into,” she says. You can drive through an existing neighborhood to see if there are children around, for example, or whether people seem to keep to themselves on the weekend.

Buyers might also be better able to picture themselves in an existing home, she says.

“It sometimes can be challenging, if a builder doesn’t have a model home, to fully understand what you want,” she says. That can be true whether buyers are considering building a custom home or deciding among options for a tract home, she says, since visualizing the completed home helps people determine what they want.

Even then, she says, “for someone to be able to go into a house that’s a blank canvas, it helps to be able to imagine what it will look like.”

New construction tends to appeal to people who “don’t want to deal with the headache of replacing an oil tank or boiler, or remodeling the brick on a 100-year-old house,” DeMattia says. Builders of new homes will generally fix any problems that pop up in the first year, she says.

“Prices have gone up, so you don’t want to invest an astronomical amount in upkeep right off the bat,” she says. “On the other side, there’s a mentality that older homes are strong and built well.”  

Buyers of existing homes tend to be attracted to the history of a neighborhood, or to the mature trees and landscaping of a neighborhood that has already been broken in, she says. Or, they might just feel more settled in an established neighborhood, or not want to deal with the noise and dust of a neighborhood still under construction.