Homeowners continue to prioritize investing in outdoor living spaces and there has been a significant surge in popularity in adding technology and systems that can help automate energy consumption. These findings are from the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Home Design Trends Survey covering activity during the second quarter of 2015 that focused on emerging home features: systems, technologies and special function rooms in the home.
“With the tremendous interest in well-designed outdoor living spaces, it’s a pretty strong indication that the days when houses were viewed as a way to flip for a big profit are long gone,” says AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “Signifying a renewed interested in practicality and use, demand for mud rooms and dedicated guest rooms are also quite high.”
All of the data from this survey can be accessed in this infographic.
Products and systems that ease home management are growing in popularity. These features double as energy saving solutions, reducing utility costs.
Baker adds, “Automation is on its way to becoming standard functionality within homes as there are systems available to regulate temperature, lighting, home audio and energy usage.”
Housing Market Business Conditions
“Conditions remain very positive, but as we might expect at this stage of the cycle, growth is beginning to slow a bit,” says Baker. “Backlogs are still trending up, and are close to being back to where they were before the downturn. While the individual sectors aren’t accelerating in terms of growth, they are all positive.”
AIA Home Design Survey Index for Q2 2015 (Any score above 50 is positive)
- Billings: 61
- Inquiries for new projects: 66
- Design contracts: 58.3
- Regional averages: Midwest (59.2), South (60.7), West (62.9) Northeast (61.0)
For more information, visit www.aia.org.
Reprinted with permission from RISMedia. ©2015. All rights reserved.
