As an example, a newly built standard home today, one designed for a typical move-up buyer rather than a cash-strapped first-timer, will include hardwood floors, as will a new-construction luxury residence that costs $1 million or more. The floors in the luxury property, though, will feature a higher quality and harder surface wood.
Gopal Ahluwalia, staff vice president for research with the builders association, says this trend is hardly new. Builders have been noticing it, he said, since the 1970s. The trend mirrors the general wishes of buyers to live in homes that are bigger and better than the ones in which they currently reside.
New condos frequently come with such luxuries as granite countertopos, hardwood floors and tall cabinets.__Credit: Photo courtesy Bozzuto Group.
(Courtesy Bozzuto Group)
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As evidence of this, Ahluwalia compares the new single-family house of the 1970s with the standard house of 2003. The association reports that the median-size residence in 1970 boasted 1,385 square feet of living space, while 24 percent featured four or more bedrooms. Just 16 percent included 2 1/2 bathrooms or more.
Now look at today's standard new single-family house. It boasts 2,123 square feet of living space. A total of 37 percent come with four bedrooms or more, while 56 percent feature 2 1/2 bathrooms or more.
This difference has inspired buyers to look at perks such as center kitchen islands, three-car garages and fireplaces as things that every new home should include. The builders association, for example, has found that 54 percent of newly built homes now come with at least one fireplace. In 1970, only 35 percent of new homes could make such a claim.
Ahluwalia says the reason for this change is simple: Today's buyers are purchasing homes for far different reasons than did their parents and grandparents.
"People used to buy homes in the 1960s and 1970s to meet their functional space needs," Ahluwalia said. "Now they are buying them to meet the needs of their lifestyles. It's like when someone buys a $75,000 Mercedes when they can get the same function from buying a $20,000 car. They figure, 'I have the money. I can afford it. Why not?' That's what is going on today with people and their homes."
Chuck Covell, president of Bozzuto Homes, a builder in Greenbelt, said home buyers are merely mimicking society as a whole.
"There are 19,000 ways to order a Starbucks coffee," he said. "There are so many options out there for everything now. People like individuality. They don't like the cookie-cutter look and feel any longer. Because of this, there has been a trend toward smaller places with higher finishes. This is particularly true with the empty-nester market, with the aging baby boomers. They are moving down in size but up in quality. They feel that they have earned the right to the high-end finishes."
Covell's clients, for instance, often want ceramic tile finishes in their bathrooms instead of vinyl floors as upgrades. They have also made stainless steel kitchen appliances into a popular upgrade.
The variety of options for buyers of even what passes for moderately priced homes in the Washington market is a plus for buyers. Covell warns, though, that there may also be a danger. Some buyers, for instance, may find themselves overwhelmed by fast-talking salespeople. Such buyers might purchase extra features at increased prices even though they don't really need or want these non-standard amenities, Covell said.
"Buyers need to be very careful to understand the true costs of adding options to their homes," he said.
Glen Raymond, vice president of Potter Homes in Fredericksburg, pointed to advances in technology as another reason for home buyers' increased expectations. Many of his clients, for example, want their new homes pre-wired for home-entertainment systems and high-speed Internet connections.
"A lot of this has been spurred by convenience," Raymond said. "People want the computers in their homes networked. In my household, for instance, all the children have computers in their rooms. Homeowners now want a main computer to run everything through. Maybe it's a matter of parents being able to monitor what their children are doing on the Internet. But it certainly is changing what buyers are looking for in their new homes."
Heather Wilson moved into her new condominium in Clarksburg late last year. Like other buyers, she asked her builder to include several amenities that formerly would have been considered luxury items. In the past, Wilson said, she might not have considered requesting the vaulted ceilings in her condo or the 12-by-12 ceramic tiles in her kitchen and bathroom. But the upgrades, she said, add to the coziness of her new residence. For this reason, Wilson said, she never seriously considered skimping on them. She also knew how important it was to request these extras during construction.
"A lot of people try to add those extras on their own after construction thinking they can get it done cheaper," Wilson said. "But having it done during construction is so much easier. You don't have to worry about contractors coming into the house and ripping it apart and redoing it. It truly pays off. The amenities make the house look much nicer. I think they will help the house sell quicker later on."
