WOOD TV8: Sable Homes new May Apple design is an economical housing option

As West Michigan continues to struggle with the housing crisis, some new homeowners are choosing to forgo the basement in favor of lower costs. WOOD TV 8 spoke with Sable Homes President John Bitely and Belding homeowners Skyler and Tracey Fisk, who just moved into Sable’s first May Apple home, about how the Rockford-based home builder’s new May Apple design is an economical option for home buyers.

It’s becoming more common across the country to build a home on a slab instead of a basement or crawl space, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Using data from the United States Census Bureau Survey of Construction, the NAHB found that 72.4% of single-family homes that began construction in 2023 were built with a slab foundation, compared to 65% in 2020 and 46% in 2000.

The prevalence of a basement varies greatly by region. In the West South Central region, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, 96.9% of new homes started in 2023 were built on a slab.

In the region that includes Michigan, only 47.1% were built on a slab in 2023, compared to 45.7% in 2020. Because of Michigan’s cold weather, homes typically need basements to protect them from frost.

But builders like Sable Homes have found ways around that. Sable has been building homes without basements for about 20 years, Bitely said. It developed a form made out of Styrofoam to protect homes from frost.

He said the company first developed the method to compete with modular homes.

“We thought we could give them a lot better home being site-built, but we were struggling to compete with their lack of foundation,” Bitely told WOOD TV 8. “(We developed) this methodology to build on a on a slab, and I think we’re very competitive even with modular homes.”

Bitely’s aunt still lives in one of the first homes Sable built with that method, called the ‘Freedom Foundation,’ and his father-in-law also lives in a basement-free home his company built, Bitely said.

The home has to be built on a flat building site and it can’t be started in the winter. But it can save thousands as crews can skip the excavation process and can cut down on materials. How much money it saves varies based on the size, style of home and the job site, but Bitely said it can easily save between $20,000 to $40,000.

Couple Skyler and Tracey Fisk — who are friends with the Sable Homes sales manager — recently moved into one of those homes in Belding with their two boys, ages 7 and 3. Tracey Fisk is an elementary teacher and the couple wanted to move closer to her school. They had looked for a home for about six months to a year, but everything either had a bad foundation or would take a lot of work to move into, they said.

“Just with prices being so crazy, we were having a hard time finding anything that we could afford,” Skyler Fisk said during an interview with WOOD TV8. “(Sable Homes) came up with the plan for this house to make it more affordable, and we went with it. … It’s been it’s been good so far.”

The home they moved into in Belding is the new May Apple design, a three-bedroom, two-bath ranch that skips the basement.

“We went through a number of things because Belding had some zoning that we needed a variance for, so there was a lot of hoops,” Bitely said in his interview. “Fortunately (Belding) worked well with us and we got that done and they’re in their new home.”

The team needed to get a variance in order to build a home without a basement, according to Bitely.

A home like the one the Fisk family moved into starts at $195,000, according to Sable Homes, not including the cost of the lot. For comparison, Bitely said many new homes will start in the $300,000 to $350,000 range.

“For us to be able to be in the ($225,000 to $250,000) range is just a huge amount of difference, and it just opens the door, so to speak, for a lot of people that need a place, whether it’s a starter home, whether it’s their second home,” Bitely said. “Some people, this will be a long-term home. Some people, it will be a stepping point for them.”

He added that he hopes zoning and building codes are changed to help meet housing demand in West Michigan.

“There’s just such a need for housing. But yet so many people aren’t willing to have any built anywhere near them or in their backyard,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll see some compromises.”