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Parade of Homes — Fall 2026

This is an independent guide, not the official site. The Parade of Homes is organised by Housing First Minnesota. For tour listings, individual home details and directions, go to paradeofhomes.org.

The Fall 2026 Parade runs September 11 to October 4, 2026 — the twice-yearly open-house tour of newly built and remodelled homes across the Twin Cities metro. For most buyers it is the only chance in the year to walk through a finished house from a builder they are considering.

What the organiser has published

Days and hours
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 6 p.m. in the Twin Cities, September 11 to October 4. Rochester-area homes run September 18 to October 4 and close at 4 p.m. Three of the builders below show in both.
Admission
Free and self-guided — with one exception the organiser states plainly: homes selected by the Housing First Minnesota Foundation as Dream Homes charge $7 at the door, card only, for anyone over ten. We counted the organiser’s published entries on 2026-08-27 and 2 of 298 homes were marked as Dream Homes, both on the Parade. Everything else, and every home on the Remodelers Showcase, is free.
Tickets
None for the tour itself. The organiser’s FAQ says the homes are open during tour hours and to walk right in, and notes that a few are by appointment and marked as such. A ticket is needed only for the Dream Homes above.
Guidebook
The organiser publishes a printed guidebook for each tour and an online edition; it says the Fall 2026 guidebook is available August 31. Where to get one is on its Guidebooks page.

All four are what the organiser published on its Dates & Hours, Tour FAQ and Dream Homes pages, read 2026-08-27. Hours and admission are the organiser’s to change, and we are not the ones who would know first — check the official site before you set out.

The Remodelers Showcase is a different tour

The Fall 2026 Remodelers Showcase runs October 2 to 4 — the last weekend of the Parade window, same hours, and it is free on the same terms. It is a separate tour of remodelled homes: counting the entries the organiser published on 2026-08-27, 24 Showcase homes from 20 companies, against 274 Parade homes from 87. We publish a profile for 9 of those 20, and each of those profiles states the tour, its dates and where we read it. Every company on this page is in the Parade. One of them — Highmark Builders — is in both, and its card below says so. None of them is Showcase-only: every builder here has Parade homes open from September 11, so nobody planning a Saturday in mid-September can be sent to a house that does not open until October. (Rochester homes, where a builder has them, open September 18.)

53 builders in this directory have a Fall 2026 Parade record we captured from their own page on the official site on 2026-08-24 and re-checked on 2026-08-27, showing 231 homes between them. This is not the full event roster: the organiser’s own entry listing carried 274 Parade homes from 87 companies when we read it, and these 53 account for 55 of those — two are listed twice, under a second trading name. What we add is the part the tour will not tell you: each company’s Minnesota licence and the date we checked it.

Participating builders we profile

Cities these builders work in

Lakeville · Woodbury · Maple Grove · Blaine · Rogers · Apple Valley · Medina · Plymouth · Eagan · Elk River · Prior Lake · Chanhassen · Eden Prairie · Edina · Minnetonka · Orono · Wayzata · Chaska · Bloomington · Minneapolis · St. Paul · St. Louis Park

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What to do with a home you liked

Walking a Parade home tells you what a builder can do at their best, on a lot they chose, with the finishes they picked. That is genuinely useful and it is also the most flattering possible view. The questions worth asking start after you leave.

The licence is already checked. Each card above shows that company’s Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry licence number, its status, and the date we checked it — verified as 53 of 53 at build time, not assumed. A licence is a low bar and it is still the one fact about a builder that is a matter of public record.

Find out where else they build. A builder’s service area tells you whether the home you walked through is typical of their work or an outlier. Each city page lists the other builders working there — the comparison the tour itself cannot give you.

If you are buying land, look at what is actually available. The lot decides more about a build than most people expect: setbacks, sewer availability, wetland and floodplain screening, and the buildable envelope left once the city’s rules are applied. Our Lot Finder shows vacant residential parcels across the metro with those constraints stated per parcel, including what we do not know about each one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Parade of Homes free?

Yes, with one exception. The organiser's Tour FAQ states that "touring is always free, except for a few homes that are selected by the Housing First Minnesota Foundation as its Dream Homes, where a $7 entry fee is required" — paid at the door, by card only, and required for anyone over the age of ten. We counted the published entries on 2026-08-27: 2 of 298 homes are Dream Homes, and both are on the Parade rather than the Remodelers Showcase. Every other home is free to walk through. Confirm on the official site before you go.

What time does the Parade of Homes open?

Noon. Twin Cities homes are open Fridays through Sundays, 12–6 p.m.; Rochester homes are open Fridays through Sundays, 12–4 p.m. Those are the hours published on the organiser's Dates & Hours page, read on 2026-08-27. Homes on the Remodelers Showcase are open only on the final weekend, October 2–4.

Do I need tickets for the Parade of Homes?

Not for the tour itself. The organiser describes it as a free, self-guided event and its Tour FAQ says "all Parade Homes will be open during tour hours. Just walk right in!", noting that a few homes are by appointment and are marked as such. A ticket is required only for the Foundation's Dream Homes, at $7 a person. Read on paradeofhomes.org on 2026-08-27.

When is the Fall 2026 Parade of Homes?

September 11 through October 4, 2026, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Rochester-area homes run September 18 to October 4. The Fall Remodelers Showcase, a separate tour of remodelled homes, runs October 2–4 — the final weekend. Dates read from the organiser's Dates & Hours page on 2026-08-27.

Is the Remodelers Showcase the same as the Parade of Homes?

No, though the organiser's own name for it is the "Parade of Homes Remodelers Showcase" and it runs in conjunction with the Parade. The Parade shows newly built homes across the full window; the Showcase shows remodelled homes on the final weekend only, October 2–4, 2026. Counting the entries the organiser published on 2026-08-27: 274 Parade homes from 87 companies, and 24 Showcase homes from 20. Every builder listed on this page is in the Parade; one of them, Highmark Builders, is in both.

Is this the official Parade of Homes site?

No. This is an independent guide published by HomeBuildersMN. The Parade of Homes is organised by Housing First Minnesota, and the official site is the source for tour listings, individual home details, directions and anything that can change.

How did you decide which builders to list?

Each builder listed here has a Fall 2026 participation record we captured from that company's own page on the official Parade site on August 24, 2026, and re-checked entry by entry on 2026-08-27. We list the builders we also publish a profile for, so there is somewhere useful to send you. It is not a complete roster of the event: the organiser published 274 Parade homes from 87 companies when we read it, and the 53 here account for 55 of those — two are listed twice, under a second trading name.

What can I find out about a builder here that the tour will not tell me?

The licence number and status we checked against the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, and the date we checked it — shown on every card below. Plus the cities they build in, and, where we have a sourced number, a phone number with the page and date it came from. Ratings shown on profiles are Google’s, attributed and linked, not our assessment.