I enjoyed school for the most part. Once I got to college at the University of South Florida, though, I had to deal with classes that were required for my major whether I liked them or not. The one and only class that gave me fits, and the one and only class I ever had to repeat in college was (cue the scary music) statistics. I love research but statistics and I never saw eye to eye. 
It was much the same way in Algebra. I wanted to know WHY X=Y. I wanted to know WHY one formula was right but other perfectly good formula was not. I’ve always enjoyed the study of human behavior and learning why we do the things we do so it seems fitting that statistics frustrated me because I could never get to the WHY.
Just the same, I’m a sucker for magazine articles about behavioral patterns that teach us why people do what they do. When I graduated from college with my degree in Social and Behavorial Sciences it wasn’t with the intention of putting my degree to use in real estate, but here I am. As a full time real estate Broker I have plenty of opportunities to study the behavioral patterns of buyers and sellers up close and personal. Understanding the nature of human behavior comes in handy a lot in this business.
So today when I got my copy of Insight magazine, a publication of the North Carolina Association of Realtors, I was immediately intrigued by one of the stories about the connection between how our homes are designed and our happiness. The article references a survey conducted by Houzz, one of my all time favorite websites, and according to the 6,000 people who responded here’s what makes us happy in our homes.
74% are happier after remodeling their home.
72% are happiest in rooms that are clean an organized.
42% find happiness in the living room while only 15% are happiest in the kitchen.
Men are 2 times more likely to find happiness from a big-screen TV.
74% prefer big windows.
Want more?
317 is the number of square feet by which the average new home size has increased since 2009.
29.7% was the percentage by which new vacation home sales jumped in 2013.
65% of home buyers want an “environment friendly” home.
70% said that if they were moving, they would buy instead of rent.
If you’re like me, you probably found more than one nugget of truth in these answers and possibly some surprises. I would like to be encouraged by the increases in vacation home sales and that people are in the mood to buy a home instead of renting. The increase in square footage was a surprise for me, though, considering the trend to downsize. The other surprise was the low percentage of people who are happiest in the kitchen. Kitchens and baths are two of the biggest selling points in any home so I’m flummoxed by that one. Maybe those folks just need a better kitchen.
Articles like this are fun. They aren’t hard scientific research, but they give us a small insight into how other people view their homes and what role their home plays in their day to day happiness. From the dawn of man we’ve sought shelter and place we can call our own. It’s just human nature to want to come home at the end of the day to a place that makes us happy – whatever and wherever that may be.
If you are in the market for a “happy home” of your own, give us a call…. we’d love to help.
Comments(5)