AREA'S EXPENSIVE HOMES OFFER PLENTY OF ROOM

Currently 17 homes are up for sale in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, priced at $300,000 or more.

Story by Mark Bliss

Photos by Lou Peukert

If you want lots of bathrooms, bedrooms and closet space, you better have a good bank account.

The area's expensive homes offer plenty of room, wrapped up in architectural details that set them apart from other houses.

Currently, a dozen homes in the city of Cape Girardeau are up for sale, priced at $300,000 or higher. The highest priced home on the market carries a $580,000 price tag, said Linda Ervin with the Cape Girardeau County Board of Realtors.

Jackson has five homes for sale in the $300,000 price range and higher, with the highest listed at $475,000.

A number of large homes have been built in Cape Girardeau in recent years.

One house in the Ashland Hills Subdivision encompasses about 12,000 square feet and is valued less than $700,000, said Cape Girardeau County Assessor Jerry Reynolds.

But nothing that expensive is currently on the sale block.

A brick, ranch house at 2514 Saddleridge in Cape Girardeau has more than 6,600 square feet of finished space on two levels, including a finished basement.

The architect-designed home sits on a two-acre lot. Built in 1992, the home is for sale at a list price of $450,000.

The house has five bedrooms, four full baths, two half baths and lots of closets.

It has a walk-in closet off the master bedroom that is larger than some people's bedrooms.

Like other expensive homes, it has a large kitchen with lots of cabinets and countertops, and even a top-of-the-line grill.

So what else do you get with expensive homes?

"You do get crown moldings and hardwood floors," said Marta Green, broker and president of Classic Real Estate Ltd., Better Homes and Gardens.

Other amenities include large master bathrooms, circle driveways and built-in speakers throughout the homes.

In the case of the Saddleridge home, there are three separate heating and cooling zones. Outside, it has an in-ground irrigation system.

The house has a large, formal dining room, a spacious living room and a guest suite in the basement. It also has oak floors and plenty of recessed lighting.

In Jackson, a two-story brick house at 853 Donna Drive is up for sale. The price: $475,000.

For that, you get about 4,000 square feet of finished space, a porch that extends across the front of the house with recessed lighting, and cherry wood throughout the home. The floors, banister and even the entertainment center in the family room are of cherry wood.

An open staircase leads to a second-floor balcony that looks down on the family room.

The foyer floor is cherry wood with a center design made of six different hardwoods.

"I love the woodwork in here," said Ken Howard of Heartland Realty in Jackson, which is listing the home.

The house, built within the past year, has a four-car garage that can be reached from two different streets.

There are built-in speakers in the house, just as there are in the Saddleridge home.

More and more people are buying expensive homes, said David J. Donley, president of the Cape Girardeau County Board of Realtors.

Donley is a realtor with Commercial Real Estate Specialists in Cape Girardeau.

Financing is the key for such home sales, he said. "People are going to 30-year mortgages."

Banks are finding creative ways to finance home buying. As a result, more people can afford an expensive home, Donley said.

High-priced homes offer conveniences such as a main-level laundry room, trash compactors and "all the neat little amenities," said Donley.

Such homes are built of brick, or increasingly stucco-like siding that never need painting.

"You've got the Jacuzzi tubs and twin tower showers, skylights and fireplaces," he said. There is also plenty of tile work in the homes.

Usually such homes have three-car garages, plus room to store a boat.

Donley said $300,000 homes were extremely rare in this area a decade ago. But times are changing.

Since 1993, six Cape Girardeau homes and three Jackson homes have sold for $300,000 or more.

That is still way above the average sale price for houses in this area. The average home sold for $87,784 in 1996, up from $76,257 in 1994.

Donley said that if the trend continues, the average home could be selling in the $100,000 range by the year 2000.