Millennials answer the question of what they want in a home
BUSINESS RECORD STAFF Jan 21, 2016 | 9:07 pm
1 min read time
349 wordsAll Latest News, Real Estate and DevelopmentThe millennial generation is poised to make a significant impact on home design with their strong preferences for energy efficiency and smart home technology, comfortable, workable kitchens and more casual spaces, according to a release from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Those conclusions were drawn from surveys, one by Meredith Corp.’s Better Homes and Gardens, and were presented during the association’s annual convention this week in Las Vegas.
Before they can have that impact, they have to enter the housing market, according to the release. In 2015, about 15 percent of adults ages 25-34 lived with a parent, about 3 percent more than the highest share between 1983 and 2007, according to the release.
Those numbers represent 1.3 million people who normally “would be out there, forming their own households, demanding their own units,” either as buyers or renters, said Rose Quint, NAHB assistant vice president for survey research.
Home buyers of all ages say they are looking for homes with separate laundry rooms, Energy Star appliances and windows, exterior lighting and a patio, according to an NAHB survey.
What they don’t want are rooms with cork flooring, elevators, pet washing stations, expensive outdoor kitchens and fireplaces, two-story entryways and family rooms. And their countertops should be granite, but never laminate, according to the survey.
A Better Homes and Gardens survey of 1,600 women who own homes found a preference among millennials for the use of technology.
Smart technology is increasingly seen by U.S. women, particularly those under 35, as a feature that improves home safety, health and connections with families, according to a release from Meredith.
Millennials said that smart technology is customizable to their needs (74 percent), makes their homes more energy efficient (70 percent) and saves them time (67 percent). Fifty-four percent of homeowners under 35 use at least one of the 16 smart technology features measured in the study. On their wish lists, 39 percent of millennials say that they would most like to use smart devices to operate appliance settings, while 36 percent say they would like quality sleep tracking and reporting.