Zillow, the home home-buying online service, revealed some of the things it says potential homebuyers are looking for in their new homes.
Every home buyer has their own favorites when it comes to what they want in their next home, but Zillow pointed to design trends it sees for the new year, including several of interest for those working with wood.
The biggest has to do with cabinetry. In analyzing its hundreds of thousands of listings on its site, Zillow found that flat-front kitchen cabinets are becoming much more popular, appearing in 38% more of those housing listings. As such they are replacing shaker-style cabinets as the favorite of home buyers.
It also said that black is gaining in popularity as well as the color choice for kitchen cabinets, a remarkable gain given that the color barely showed up on listings just a few years ago.
Also of interest to builders were findings in floors. Checkerboard motifs, regardless of the flooring material being used, were mentioned 38% more in its listings, Zillow said, often in non-traditional color combinations rather than the standard black and white.
Finally, look for different materials being used for moldings around the house, with stone baseboards and trim increasing in use as opposed to traditional painted wood or plaster moldings. For home builders in general, Zillow sees more smart toilets and more induction cooking ranges gaining in popularity.
