Digg This
Talk Back
Post a Comment
|
|||||||
HousingZone Most Popular Stories
- Home Mortgage Rates Set to Move Higher Next Spring
- Tax Credit Extension to Give Housing Recovery a Boost
- Design Challenge Winners Tackle the Multigenerational Household
- The Energetic Discipline Behind Professional Builder's Builder of the Year
- What remodelers need to know about the new lead paint rules
- Remodelers Tighten Up Labor Costs to Stay Afloat
- Use abandoned phone numbers to boost remodeling business
- What Today's First-Time Buyers Want in a New Home
- 100 Best New Products 2009
- Remodeling market down, but remodelers expect recovery
Results from NAHB's 2007-2008 "Consumer Preferences Survey"
What do home buyers want in their homes? Turn to NAHB's 2007-2008 "Consumer Preferences Survey" to find out
By Sara Zailskas, Assistant Managing Editor
January 1, 2009
Professional Builder
NAHB's 2007-2008 “Consumer Preferences Survey” sheds a lot of light on what people want in
| Other Survey Takeaways 60% More than 60 percent said they'd like an energy management system. 92% listed the laundry room as “essential” when it came to specialty rooms. 58% A smaller house with high-quality products instead of a bigger house with fewer amenities appealed to 58 percent of respondents. |
The Facts: Of the 2,318 respondents, 65 percent were willing only to pay $5,000 in up-front costs to save $1,000 a year in utility costs. However, they said they were willing to pay the price for their favorite amenities.
What to do about it: Do the math for them. Compare potential utility savings against the price of more luxurious items.
The Facts: Outdoor recreational space such as walking trails and parks have pull. Such features would strongly influence buyers to move to a community, said nearly half the respondents.
What to do about it: Talk about the features within your community or nearby and put it into user-friendly terms: “It's easy to get a 5-mile run in on our trails.”
What to do about it: Remind home buyers how much they could save by leaving a basement unfinished.
The Facts: Wood woos: 63 percent of respondents said they wanted a wood exterior door over steel and fiberglass.
What to do about it: Show prospective buyers the doors you offer — real or fake wood — that would appeal to fans of wood.
The Facts: 70 percent of respondents said they did or would repaint walls within a new home; 30 percent of those people did so to improve paint quality.
What to do about it: If you're using quality paint, brag about it. It adds to the low-maintenance appeal.
© 2009, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.
