Quartz counters, farmhouse sinks and outdoor kitchens are surging in popularity
Thirty-five percent of millennials who own a home or are likely to purchase a home in the next few years said the kitchen is the most important room when it comes to the house hunt, according to a nationwide survey of over 1,000 millennials conducted by meal kit delivery company HelloFresh. Forty-eight percent said they would be more encouraged to cook at home more often if they had an “updated/amazing kitchen.”
But what makes a kitchen amazing? Teaming up with HelloFresh, we dove into Redfin data on homes for sale to see which kitchen trends are on the rise and which are falling like a bad soufflé.
We analyzed the listing descriptions of millions of homes that have been put up for sale over the past eight years and tracked how often specific kitchen terms are mentioned. Real estate agents are limited in the number of characters they can use to describe a home in the online listing, so an analysis of which words they chose provides insight into what they believe are key selling features.
When it comes to countertops, granite is a rock-solid choice, but quartz is a notable up-and-comer.So far this year, 3.7 percent of all listings included a mention of ‘granite,’ making it the most common keyword we analyzed. ‘Marble’ is also growing in popularity. In 2010, 0.4 percent of listings mentioned marble, compared to 0.7 percent of listings in 2018. While marble is mentioned more often than quartz, quartz is growing in popularity at a faster rate.
Buyers have spoken, and they still love breakfast bars and islands. Appearing in 1.25 percent of all listings this year so far, breakfast bar was the third-most commonly mentioned keyword and continues to grow in use. In 2010, just 0.3 percent of listings mentioned the term. Many buyers are keen on kitchen islands. In the HelloFresh survey, 64 percent of respondents said a “big island” is a must-have feature in their dream kitchen.
“While there are rare exceptions, most of my buyers are looking for an open concept floor plan with an island or peninsula that overlooks the living room. For many buyers, this is an absolute must-have,” said Katie Scire, a Redfin agent in Washington, D.C
METHODOLOGY
Redfin analyzed the online descriptions for millions of homes that were listed on the market between 2010 and 2018. Redfin counted the number of listings that mention specific keywords related to the kitchen and calculated their popularity and the change in popularity year over year.
Written by
Alina Ptaszynski – Guest contributor/author
August, 2018
Redfin
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