Hot Home Buying Trends Across the Housing Market
Whether you’re in the market for a Pennsylvania mortgage or a California mortgage, there’s a good chance you want certain perks in a new home. From coast to coast, buyers are requesting different amenities than ever before.
Mark Nash, author of Real Estate A-Z for Buying and Selling a Home, has gleaned this information from a survey he conducted questioning 923 real estate agents, home mortgage brokers and industry executives.
Here are the latest trends/request from new buyers:
Upscale garages: Who knew that those smelly, greasy spaces overstuffed with junk and empty boxes would morph into showplaces for Home Improvement types?
“Today’s owners want [garages] decked out with cabinet and storage systems, matching refrigerators, air conditioning and residential looking flooring,” Nash said to CNN Money.
Nash, a real estate broker himself, says he has had home sellers so infatuated with their upscale car storage unit that they become livid when house hunters get a bit of dirt on the floor.
Caving: People want more personal space - for both mom and pop. Apparently, married people often like time alone. Who knew?
Therefore, an amenity of choice these days for many first-time home buyers is “personal, dedicated space for one person in a household to go and work on projects or simply ‘chill,’” said Nash.
Rejuvenation rooms: No, This is not simply to work out in. These are one-stop sites for exercising, meditating, yoga, sauna and fancy steam showers.
“This is kind of a new age, serenity room where you do these quiet exercise things and then jump in the spa,” said Nash.
Heated patios: Northerners want to reduce their winter workouts shoveling snow, according to Nash, so they’re installing heated patios, walkways and driveways.
Plus they want to “add a couple of weeks of outdoor enjoyment in spring and fall,” he says, and the warmth radiating off these outdoor surfaces makes the diffrences between just comfortable and “Let’s go inside.”
As you’d imagine, these are popular choices for those in colder climates, such as Massachusetts mortgage seekers.
Snoring rooms: Husband (never wives) have often been banished for excessive snoring, but it must be a lonely feeling to trudge out of the master bedroom suite and down to the living room couch. Now they don’t have to.
The huge master suites being installed in upscale housing typically come with large sleeping areas, a big walk-in closet and a gigantic bath. More and more now, they’ll be equipped with another room entirely, a 12′ by 12′ or so space with a double bed and chair that will spare the innocent sleeper from the worst ravages of the noisy snorer.