Good thing I'm a realtor. Because I think about houses all the time. I shop all the time. I look all the time. I think about the next thing to do with my own home all the time. And, of course, I'm always thinking about moving. So good thing it's my job! Keeps me in one spot to be able to move everyone else around! But all the shopping -- addiction -- does keep my finger on the pulse. Since I've been shopping for my clients daily this spring, and always shopping for myself, I'd love to share what I'm seeing over and over as far as new home trends in DFW in 2013. What are new home builders doing? What are home owners doing to update, upgrade and modernize? What are consumers demanding most?
Top 5 New Home Trends - Spring 2013
1. The outdoor living space
That has to be by far one of the biggest most explosive trends here in DFW today. It used to be just a patio. Then extend it. Cover it. Power it. Now get a pool and spa. Now it's just taken on another life with a fancier pergola or cover with multiple heights or dimensions, fancier lighting like what you'd use in the formal dining, kitchen cooking equipment, fireplace or firepit, seating, fancier furniture, TVs, curtains... outside! Very popular right now. Several of our upscale track builders and just about all of our custom builders in Texas are now creating outdoor living spaces in the back and then a 2nd area to the side, off the breakfast area, and then another one upstairs at a balcony area! I know this has always been a feature of the multi-million dollar homeowner, but it's now something you will see at just about every pricepoint here. Not just for Cleopatra anymore!
2. The wide open kitchen with the wide open island bar
Used to we were advertising chef's dream with island kitchen. Double oven. Built-in microwave. 42'' uppers... Now if that island doesn't stretch to the middle of the room and knock down those walls and open it up to the movie-size TV mounted on the wall of that living room, then it's not really a kitchen, it's a kitchenette. The big, open kitchen with seating at the island is super popular right now. Just about every home builder from the most affordable to the most expensive does this biggie-size island kitchen right now. Not an option for my 80s home, so....
3. Colored and multi-colored cabinets with two different granites on countertops or different colors in the open shelving inserts
I can't make my floorplan modern in my 80s home, but I can do this trend with ease... paint those Ash, golden oak stained yellowing 80s cabinets! Stains are in, too, and I love stain! They are lower maintenance and when they are newly stained, the luster is gorgeous. But a lot of us have old, and paint makes them modern. I see a lot of French white cabinets right now in new homes and in newly remodeled homes. And I see a lot of other colors, too. And back to number two, I see a lot of kitchens with cabinetry that is one color and island cabintry another color. Or one color on bottom and another color on the uppers. It certainly adds interest.
4. Solid-surface floors
Solid surface flooring has been a hit for a while now in my area, but it seems the solid surface flooring is getting even more fancy with diamond inlay patterns fit for a castle even in more affordable areas of town. Used to we were so excited to market ceramic tile wet areas. Now ceramic tile is the economical choice and it's super hot to have handscraped hardwood or travertine or some other fancier earthy material. They are all beautiful and I love the trend of the longer-lasting, durable solid surface floor to the carpet that holds dust, anyday, myself, so I am happy to see that. Plus, you can always soften it up with a rug vs. wall-to-wall carpeting.
5. Mix up the building materials, patterns and colors
As mentioned in number three, it's ok to do one color on upper cabinets and another color at the base. Similarly, people are really going for more color on walls and trims vs. trimming it in white like a wedding cake all the time. And what I really love is the mix of building materials in and out. A front facade no longer is all brick or all siding these days. If you don't mix in some stone, wood trim, or some other materials, you pretty much didn't do a thing consumers are demanding right now. Here at home in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area the building materials in and out are a mixed bag and I love the look homes have in 2013.
There are plenty others: iron front doors, mud room/laundry room/second pantry combos, home office downstairs, media room upstairs, fireplace in the living and in the office and in the master... there are a few other things I see right now trending pretty heavily, but just to name a few observations...
Shopping for houses is so much fun! I hope you'll shop with me this spring!
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