(WSJ) - A $3 million farmhouse (minus the farm) may sound outrageous, but people can’t build them fast enough, and prices for prime lots are soaring.

When shopping for a vacation home in California’s Napa Valley, Maria Martinez, 58, and her lifelong friend, Lizette Fiallo, had their hearts set on a “vintage home, something from the 1800s with classic style,” said Ms. Martinez, an executive at a cloud-computing firm in San Francisco.

But as they looked at cottages and Victorian houses in the heart of wine country, the friends were turned off by the small rooms, choppy layouts and closed-off galley kitchens.

Then they came across a new home in St. Helena with an old soul: a modern farmhouse with three bedrooms, 3½ baths and a one-bedroom guesthouse. The fact that each bedroom had its own bathroom was a draw, said Ms. Fiallo, a 60-year-old certified public accountant who lives in Carmel, Calif.

When shopping for a vacation home in California’s Napa Valley, Maria Martinez, 58, and her lifelong friend, Lizette Fiallo, had their hearts set on a “vintage home, something from the 1800s with classic style,” said Ms. Martinez, an executive at a cloud-computing firm in San Francisco.

But as they looked at cottages and Victorian houses in the heart of wine country, the friends were turned off by the small rooms, choppy layouts and closed-off galley kitchens.

Then they came across a new home in St. Helena with an old soul: a modern farmhouse with three bedrooms, 3½ baths and a one-bedroom guesthouse. The fact that each bedroom had its own bathroom was a draw, said Ms. Fiallo, a 60-year-old certified public accountant who lives in Carmel, Calif.