Far from the Bronx, New York teacher wins Bluffton HGTV Dream Home
The HGTV Dream Home sweepstakes has come to an exciting end for a special education teacher from the Bronx, New York. Tricia Smith was the one name selected out of 118 million entries to win the brand new Bluffton abode.
Smith currently lives in an 800 square foot apartment that she shares with he mother and younger sister. She has entered the sweepstakes for years, and this year, made sure to enter her name into the contest as many times as she could, she told HGTV.
The 3,000 square foot Dream Home is located on the fairway in Berkeley Hall, a private golf community off Fording Island Road in northern Bluffton. Described as a “classic southern abode with Lowcountry charm,” it hosts three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a prep kitchen off the main kitchen, a porch off the main bedroom and even a pet washing station in the laundry room.
Along with the house, she also received a 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLC and $100,000.
The home was built by Shoreline Construction and designed by Court Atkins Group. The home’s interior design was done by Brian Patrick Flynn, an American television producer turned interior designer that has designed the past ten HGTV Dream Homes.
In an interview with The Island Packet, Flynn described the home’s design as quintessentially Bluffton. The house fits right in with other homes in the area, he said — a cross between trendy farmhouse and a low country cottage with simple architecture — with certain elements dialed up a bit. Instead of just neutrals, the house is filled with greens and blues and different textures and patterns.
This is not the first time an HGTV dream home has been built in the Lowcountry. Just five years ago in 2020, the home was built on Hilton Head Island. In 2013, Charleston was selected as the site for the home. In 1998, the home was built in Beaufort.
According to the real estate website Zillow, comparable properties in Berkeley Hall can carry annual property taxes of more than $9,000 in addition to homeowners association fees.
