Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Housing Market: Reduced Sizes, More Expectations

This Article explains how housing markets are changing to suit the demand of homeowners in modern times. The sizes of houses are reducing, but so are their price tags. People expect more for their money, but let’s establish what more means. More does not mean more space, but rather it means people are expecting more amenities, such as energy efficiency, and ecologically friendliness. As the years go by, people are willing to pay a premium for their house if it houses all of the necessary energy efficient technologies.

After the stock market crash in 2008, home buying has decreased significantly. People stopped buying and started renovating. However, over the past year, homeowners are becoming a little less cautious and are starting to invest in the housing market again, but at what cost? People have started a trend to buy smaller, cheaper houses that are more energy efficient. Average housing sizes have decreased, but the amenities have increased. People are expecting new homes with great insulation, energy efficient appliances, and new windows. While everyone's next though would be solar panels, the technology is still too expensive for consumers to demand and the companies to supply. Basically, builders are supplying the needs of their homebuyers by giving amenities without a significant price increase. How will this affect the expectations of homeowners?

In my opinion, smaller, efficient housing is most likely the best thing for our planet. Older homes are hurting the environment more than they are helping and homeowners are starting to realize this. The housing market is rebounding quickly. Who knows what's next? The main concern with the new housing market is the higher expectations for a cheaper price. Builders are losing their profit margins with more cautious buyers. Hopefully, the building industry will continue their environmentally friendly trend into the future, but at what cost?

3 comments:

Smith said...

You nailed the collective thought of potential home buyers. Jenn and built our house; therefore, it is extremely energy efficient. One of our biggest concerns about purchasing an existing home is the costs to upgrade the energy efficiency.

Smith said...

You nailed the collective thought of potential home buyers. Jenn and built our house; therefore, it is extremely energy efficient. One of our biggest concerns about purchasing an existing home is the costs to upgrade the energy efficiency.

Lindsay said...

My parents built our house from the ground up and it's pretty energy efficient for how big that house is. The only problem with building a house is how long is takes to build. My house took about a year and a half to two years to build. If you're in need of a house fast, you can't build a house, so you must buy a house. The house across the street from me was also building their house while we were, but that house is a lot bigger than ours, so it took almost three and a half years to build. To get the most energy efficiency, building a big house isn't the best idea.