Are you a Las Vegas property owner? Have you been wondering what a majority of home buyers want today, and in the future? The answer is: smaller, more energy-efficient homes.
The average size of a new single-family home in 2010 was 2,377 square feet, down from 2,438 square feet in 2009. This information, presented last week at the International Builders’ Show by Rose Quint, Assistant Vice President of Survey Research for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), comes from US Census Bureau data.
The trend will continue, Quint said, with the 2015 new home size currently projected at 2,150 square feet, with fewer bathrooms and smaller garages.
Quint believes smaller sizes are here to stay, based on demographics. The US population, as of April 2010, was 310 million. That’s expected to rise to 322 million in 2015, and to 422 million by 2050. The population is also getting older, and more diverse. In 2010, 25% were over the age of 55, which is expected to grow to 31% by 2050.
This rising segment of older homeowners won’t want to care for a huge space, Quint said; add to this the component of Generation Y buyers who are very energy conscious. “People are coming to realize, ‘Let’s buy what we need,’” said Quint.
The Census Bureau data matches NAHB’s findings that builders expect to build smaller homes with more green features in the next five years. Low-energy windows, water-efficient features, engineered-wood beams, joints, or trusses, and Energy-Star ratings for the whole home are expected to be more prevalent.
Builders also expect an increase in living room size – as well as more planning for universal design features – with homes more easily adaptable for future improvements.
Jill Waage, executive editor with Better Homes and Gardens, also presented her magazine’s 2011 consumer preferences survey, which was taken during the first week of December. According to the survey, the top three improvement priorities for home owners were a laundry room, additional storage, and a home office. “The connection to outdoor living space is also really important,” Waage says.
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