Home design trends change constantly, and sometimes not fast enough. While many U.S. homeowners love to keep up their homes on trend with real estate television shows and websites, the reality is most homes have outdated elements.
In fact, 70 percent of new or prospective home buyers report having outdated design features in their current homes. The six most common culprits for remodel-worthy features are linoleum floors (40 percent), popcorn ceilings (29 percent), wood paneling (28 percent), ceramic tile countertops (28 percent), shag carpeting (19 percent) and even avocado green appliances (8 percent)—according to a consumer survey conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Taylor Morrison.
"This is why real and virtual house hunting is so popular," says Sheryl Palmer, Taylor Morrison chairman and chief executive officer. "We all love to daydream and envision ourselves in a beautiful new environment. But keeping up with ever-evolving preferences for paint colors, home features, new technologies and how we expect to use our homes over the years, is difficult. We also know that home interior preferences vary by generation, by home style, by region, even by city."
The firm relies on data from national consumer surveys like this one to stay focused on what home byers want, and address changing interests across all generations, Palmer adds.
Which features bring more buyers to new homes? Below are some highlights of the survey:
--Better energy efficiency (62 percent), floor plans that can be personalized (58 percent) and easier maintenance (56 percent), were preferred over items like the latest technology (38 percent).
--Inside a new home, wood flooring (65 percent) is considered the most essential feature, followed by USB and Ethernet ports (44 percent), a whirlpool tub (36 percent) and sun room (34 percent). Millennials showed more of an affinity than older generations for a whirlpool tub (39 vs. 32 percent), home theater (30 vs. 24 percent) and wine refrigerator or cellar (21 vs. 12 percent).
--Millennials, just as much as any other generation, still want to have dining rooms in their new homes. When all generations were asked to describe how they use their existing dining rooms, 80 percent of boomers said, "I use it as a dining room," versus 65 percent of millennials who are interested in nontraditional uses of this traditional space. In fact, more than one in four (30 percent) of those with a dining room say they use this space for something other than dining, and most often as an office, game room or craft room. "What this tells us, is that younger home buyers still prefer a more traditional layout, but when it comes to how we all use that space, as a home builder we need to provide flexibility so dining rooms can be used in a multitude of ways," says Erik Heuser, Taylor Morrison executive vice president and chief strategy officer.
--Soft natural tones (77 percent) were the more popular interior paint colors for recent and prospective home buyers. However, deep, rich tones (54 percent) could soon take over. Nearly three in five (59 percent) millennials want the interior walls of their home painted with darker, rich colors, compared to just 49 percent of their older counterparts.
