Before smart homes can catch on, there are some challenges that need to be overcome. First, consumers need to understand the products - how to use them, what benefits they deliver, and, the most terrifying one, how to integrate them into their home. Next, consumers need to either understand the value that is associated to the cost, or the prices need to come down. And finally, consumers need to feel that there are not security risks with adding these products into their home and their personal domain.

There are tons of high-tech gadgets to make homes "smarter" today, but homeowners are not asking for them as much as you might think.

Full home automation is not high on the average house hunter's priority list. That may be about to change. The trouble so far has been the technology itself: Consumers aren't sure how to integrate it into existing home systems. Plain and simple, they don't know how to use it.

"It's been a lot of fragmentation in the industry, a lot of confusion among consumers as to which devices are the best to go with. Is there longevity here? If they install a system tomorrow, will it be around in the next year," said Blake Kozak, principal analyst at IHS Markit.

In 2016, 80 million smart home devices were delivered worldwide, a 64 percent increase from 2015, according to IHS Markit. That includes Nest thermostats and smoke detectors, August smart locks, Ring video doorbells. A big chunk of it was personal home assistants like Google Home, Bosch's Mykie and Amazon's Alexa. Analysts say despite the growth last year, 2017 will be the year of the smart home because the companies behind the technology will be smarter about educating their consumers.

"The consumers today are incredibly confused as to what's the value that they're getting. A consumer could be spending upwards of $1,000 if they go to the retail market and they don't understand what's the value. Are they getting energy savings? Is it simply fun and they're not going to want to use it in a couple weeks' time?" said Kozak.

Consolidation in the industry has brought smaller home-tech companies under big umbrella home-service providers. That should help consumers feel more comfortable with the new devices.
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