What Ethnic Home Buyers Really Want

Findings from the latest NAHB study on housing preferences, What Home Buyers Really Want: Ethnic Preferences, show there are both similarities and differences in what home buyers of different racial/ethnic backgrounds most want to have in their homes.

Based on an extensive list of more than 120 home and community features that buyers rated as essential, desirable, indifferent, or ‘do not want’, the table below shows the top 10 most wanted features for White, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian buyers.

The four features that are common to all four lists, i.e., they are really wanted by buyers of all racial/ethnic backgrounds:
 A laundry room 
 Energy-star rated appliances
 Energy-star rating for the whole home
 Exterior lighting

Three features that are relatively more important to minority buyers than to White buyers, since they appear on the top 10 list for the minority groups but not for White buyers:
 Living room
 Dining room
 Patio

Two features that make it into White buyers’ top 10 most wanted list, but are ranked lower by the three minority groups:
 Garage storage
 Insulation higher than required by code

When building homes, it is as critical to understand which features home buyers really want, as it is to know which ones they do not want and will probably not pay for.

Interestingly, there are quite a few similarities in what home buyers reject across the different groups: 7 of the 10 most unwanted features are common across the four rejection lists:
An elevator – the single-most unwanted feature across all four groups
 Golf course community – second most unwanted feature across the board
 High density community
 Only a shower stall in the master bath (no tub)
 Gated community (with a monthly fee of $100 to $200)
 Wine cooler
 Wet bar

Plansource, Inc., www.planonline.com, remains a portal of information for homebuilders and the homebuilding industry.

 

Reprinted from Builder Magazine/NAHB