What's HOT and NOT in Home Design

A nationwide survey of 923 real estate professionals by Mark Nash, real estate author of 1,001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home (Thomson/South-Western, 2004), includes a list of home features that are popular among buyers and those that are so 2006.

For example, practitioners surveyed reported that the inability to keep stainless steel appliances, glass-front cabinets,

and vessel-style sinks clean has caused them to fall out of favor with buyers. Also, spiral staircases have become less popular, particularly among buyers with young children.

According to the survey, here are what home buyers want in 2007:

1. Glass tile. When retooling the bathroom or the kitchen, trendy remodelers choose glass tile over ceramic because of its reflective qualities.
2. Engineered stone compounds. Engineered stone compound is this year’s kitchen must-have and best of all it’s less expensive than granite.
3. Wrought iron. Make the back yard look classy with a wrought-iron fence.
   Colorful trim. When repainting trim around shutters, doors, and window frames, go for bright and bold.
4. His-and-her home offices. Complete with fiber-optic cables for Internet connectivity.
   Extra storage space. This extra space buyers prefer in the form of linen closets, pantries, and luggage rooms.

Home trends that were strictly 2006:

Bowl-shaped, above-the-counter sinks. Nobody can keep them clean.
Glass kitchen cabinet doors. They look great in magazines, but lousy in real life.
Bamboo wood. It dents and scratches easily and warps in humid weather.

Source: MarketWatch, Marshall Loeb and Washington Post, Kirstin Downey (01/06/07)