The 7 Home Trends Consumers Crave Most

By Rieva Lesonsky

Is your business involved in homebuilding, home remodeling, interior décor or home accessories or furnishings? If so, you’ll want to know about a survey by Better Homes & Gardens, reported in MarketWatch, that reveals the top seven things consumers want most when buying a new home or remodeling an old one.

1. Separate laundry room. A laundry room doesn’t have to be glamorous or even especially spacious—the key is that it be convenient to the rest of the home. With aging Boomers having more trouble getting up and down stairs, having the laundry room on the main floor or near the bedrooms—instead of in a garage or down in the basement—is a big plus.
2. Storage space, built-in shelving and walk-in closets. The days of consumers shelling out for more square footage are gone. Instead, people want to maximize the space they do have by organizing it properly. Floor-to-ceiling shelving, hidden cabinets and bigger closets are all on the wish list.
3. Outdoor living space. The showy outdoor kitchens, built-in grills with pizza ovens and outside fireplaces are less popular in the recessionary fallout. But consumers still want outdoor spaces that connect to the home, giving them more room for entertaining. Front-yard living areas are gaining in popularity too since they often add curb appeal.
4. An extra bedroom with attached private bath. This can be used as a master suite, mother-in-law suite or even a place to stash a teenager, but whatever it’s used for, it’s one of the most-wanted add-ons today.
5. Home office/workspace/computing space. With more people working at home at least part of the time, an add-on home office is in high demand. But many consumers simply want ways to make their existing spaces more work-friendly by adding docking stations, more outlets or places to use computers in the existing kitchen or family room.
6. Multiple eating spaces in or near the kitchen. An eat-in kitchen or bar area isn’t enough today. At the recent International Builders Show in Orlando, Florida, MarketWatch reports, many displays featured  three or four eating areas in the extended kitchen/family room area. Why? More and more, we’re multitasking, which means the whole family might gather in the same general area but not be doing the same thing. Everyone wants to be able to eat, work or do whatever they want, wherever they’re sitting.
7. Bathroom upgrades. Kitchens and baths are always been the most popular ares to remodel, but until recently, kitchens were the hotter project. However, the survey found bathrooms are taking the lead. Maybe it’s the economy making us seek de-stress havens at home—or maybe it’s boomerang children moving back home and hogging the shower—but 31 percent of consumers this year are focusing remodeling efforts on baths and just 25 percent are concentrating on kitchens.

Whether you build homes, remodel homes or just sell home furnishings and accessories, these trends can point you in the direction of bigger sales.

Image by Flickr user James Thompson (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2012 at 6:00 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Small Business, small business, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.