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Consumer Buying Trends { Demographics & buying patterns for the home } ® A CYGNUS BUSINESS MEDIA PUBLICATION SALES OFFICES NATIONAL SALES MANAGER MIDWEST Michael Mandozzi 3030 W. Salt Creek Lane Arlington Heights, IL 60005 Phone: 847-454-2715 Email: mike.mandozzi@cygnus.com Key Kitchen Features Among Top Upscale Amenities, Survey Finds WASHINGTON, DC — Key kitchen amenities – including wine coolers and warming drawers – remain high on the list of "hot button" preferences for buyers of upscale homes, who also desire outdoor kitchens, wet bars and his-andher baths as much-desired features in their new homes. That's the conclusion of a newly released study, entitled "What Home Buyers Really Want," conducted by the National Association of Home Builders among home buyers expecting to pay at least $500,000 compared to those expecting to pay less than $150,000. The study reported on the most-desired amenities for an upscale new home, culled from a list of 120 features encompassing windows, doors, kitchens, baths, specialty rooms, decorative features, accessibility and energy savings. The NAHB survey, whose results were released in July, asked buyers to rate each feature as "essential/must have," "desirable," "indiferent," or "do not want." According to Paul Emrath, an economist for the Washington, DCbased NAHB, kitchen wine coolers and warming drawers were among the top choices on the list of consumer desires for homes costing at least $500,000, although they were well down the list for less-expensive homes (see related series of graphs, below). Also high on the list for homes in excess of $500,000 were outdoor kitchens, wet bars, a game room and an exercise room. His-and-her baths, a laundry chute, an outdoor freplace, sensor-operated faucets and a media room similarly ranked especially high among upscale consumers, the NAHB said. What follows is what the NAHB concluded about each of the key kitchenrelated items preferred in upscale homes: ⊕ Wine Coolers: Although a wine cooler can be of almost any size, when evaluating a cooler as an integral feature that would be included in the price of a home, "most consumers likely envision something large enough to crowd out another appliance or essential general storage space in a smaller kitchen," the NAHB pointed out. "As a general rule, relatively few home buyers demand a wine cooler in their kitchens," Emrath said, noting that among all survey respondents, it was one of only three kitchen features rated as "desirable" or "essential" by fewer than 30% of the respondents. However, 46% of buyers expecting to pay at least $500,000 rated a wine cooler as "desirable" or "essential," compared to only 15% of buyers expecting to pay less than $150,000. ⊕ Warming Drawers: Like a wine cooler, a warming drawer is seen by upscale consumers as a specialty item that takes up space that would generally be allocated to more general purposes in a small kitchen. Also like a wine cooler, it was one of the few kitchen features rated essential or desirable by fewer than 30% of the surveyed home buyers overall, Emrath observed. However, a signifcantly larger share (42%) of home buyers expecting to pay at least $500,000 want a warming drawer, compared to only 15% of buyers expecting to pay less than $150,000, the economist noted. "Only 14% of the $500,000-plus buyers say they're unlikely to buy a home with a warming drawer – the smallest 'do not want' percentage for any item discussed, which helps explain why a warming drawer in the kitchen ranks as the number one feature most [desired in upscale homes," Emrath said. ⊕ Outdoor Kitchens: Although an outdoor kitchen may consist of a relatively simple expanded grilling area, it may also be more elaborate, with many of the amenities found in an indoor kitchen, including a sink, refrigerator, lighting, cabinetry and natural stone countertops. According to the NAHB's Emrath, "It's probably not surprising that what often amounts to a second complete kitchen constructed outdoors qualifes as a luxury item that seems primarily appropriate in upscale homes." ⊕ Wet bars: As the term suggests, a wet bar is a place for mixing and serving beverages that includes a sink. Plumbing and installing plumbing fxtures is the type of job that 93% of single-family builders always subcontract, according to a survey of builders NAHB conducted in 2012. "Given the added cost," Emrath said, "it's not surprising that this is another upscale item for which demand is concentrated at the high end of the price spectrum." According to the NAHB, nearly half of buyers expecting to pay less than $150,000 are unlikely to buy a home if it includes a wet bar, compared to only 21% for buyers expecting to pay $500,000 or more. Forty-two percent of surveyed $500,000-plus buyers said they want a wet bar, compared to only 28% for under-$150,000 buyers, the NAHB added. Desirable/ Essential Expecting to Pay $500K+ for Home Do Not Want 14% 42% KITCHEN WITH WARMING DRAWER Expecting to Pay Less Than $150K for Home 34% 23% 23% 46% KITCHEN WITH WINE COOLER 52% 15% 18% 49% OUTDOOR KITCHEN 36% EAST/SOUTHEAST Joanne Naylor 540 Lee Court Wyckoff, NJ 07481 Phone: 201/891-9170; Fax: 201/839-9161 E-mail: joanne.naylor@cygnus.com Joe May 297 Concord Road Marlborough, MA 01752 Phone: 800/547-7377 x2718 E-mail: joe.may@cygnus.com WEST/SOUTHWEST Kim Carroll 7355 19th Avenue NW Seattle, WA 98117 Phone: 206/781-0714; Fax: 206/473-0724 E-mail: kim.carroll@cygnus.com PRODUCT & LITERATURE SHOWCASE/CLASSIFIED ADS Nancy Campoli 558 Prospect Avenue River Vale, NJ 07675 Phone: 800/547-7377 x6127 E-mail: nancy.campoli@cygnus.com EDITORIAL OFFICES 3 Huntington Quadrangle, Suite 301N Melville, NY 11747 Janice Anne Costa, Editor Tel: 631/963-6233 E-mail: janice.costa@cygnus.com Anita Shaw, Managing Editor Tel: 631/963-6209 E-mail: anita.shaw@cygnus.com Kimberly Berndtson, Senior Editor Tel: 920/563-1722 E-mail: kim.berndtson@cygnus.com CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS 1233 Janesville Ave. Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 Phone: 631/845-2700; Fax: 631/845-2741 PUBLISHING HEADQUARTERS 3030 W. Salt Creek Lane, Suite 200 Arlington Heights, IL 60005 Eliot Sefrin, Publisher Emeritus E-mail: eliot.sefrin@cygnus.com REPRINT SERVICES For reprints and licensing please contact Nick Iademarco at Wright's Media 877-652-5295 ext. 102 or niademarco@wrightsmedia.com. SUBSCRIPTIONS, BACK ISSUES 1233 Janesville Avenue Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 Tel: 920/563-1761; Fax: 920/563-1704 27% MAILING LIST RENTAL Elizabeth Jackson Tel: 847-492-1350 ext. 18 E-mail: ejackson@meritdirect.com Web site: www.ForResidentialPros.com Source: National Association of Home Builders September 2013 ForResidentialPros.com | 11