The urban farmhouse is apparently here to stay, according to The Wall Street Journal's Mansion Global.
Critics who say the look is becoming passe can complain until the cows come home. For now, farmhouse- or Craftsman-inspired homes sell for significantly more than other styles, according to RealEstate.com, a website owned by online real-estate firm Zillow. Including words like barn doors, exposed beams or free-standing tubs in a property listing can push up house prices by as much as 30%, its research found. A description that includes “farmhouse sink,” for instance, creates a 26% premium for an entry-level home and a 16% premium for a high-end house, says Aaron Terrazas, Zillow’s economic research director.
Home builders large and small are fueling farmhouse fever. Atlanta-based Pulte Group uses it for many of its model homes. One, in its Blackrock development outside Las Vegas, comes with board-and-batten siding, wood beams and barn lighting. In San Antonio, the model home of a new master-planned community built by a local firm, Imagine Homes, features shiplap, stone walls and a desk that looks like a butcher block. Toll Brothers , based in Horsham, Pa., recently introduced modern farmhouse exteriors at several of its Virginia communities. It also offers “urban farmhouse” as an design option for a new development, Eisenhower Square in Alexandria, Va.
“A good 70% of homes we are building right now are urban farmhouses,” says Greg Alford, owner of Alford Homes, a luxury home-building company in Dallas.
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