Paul Escobedo :: Remodeling Principles and Priorities

Refocusing on What Matters

Maybe the wind is out of your real estate sails at the moment, but folks still need somewhere to live—and as long as people of the good green earth live indoors, they’ll certainly be remodeling their homes to suit their needs, and fancies. As we move away from the more extravagant remodeling projects of years past—granite this, gilded those, and travertine that—it seems to me that there’s a paradigm shift happening, leading us all to refocus on the things that really matter.

There’s been an eerie consensus among home builders and industry analysts lately (I know, it scares me too) that the way we define “home” has been fundamentally altered by all this still recent housing-fall-down-go-boom.

Now, losing value in a home has real implications for families, and I’m certainly not discounting the difficulties of that reality. But perhaps—just perhaps—something good has come out of this economic debacle.  Something powerful that has fundamentally refocused us on our true priorities. Maybe we’re rediscovering that what’s meaningful isn’t just a home stuffed to the brim with expensive materials and costly appliances, but rather a comfortable and sustainable respite that centers on what matters to us most: our families, our communities, and our planet.

Recent reports and trends back me up on this. The National Association of Home Builders’ “The New Home in 2015” polled industry bigwigs and found that many in the new home construction and design sectors anticipate a big deceleration in the size and general luxuriousness of new homes. The homes, according to them, will probably be smaller (to the tune of a few hundred square feet), more focused on functional living spaces like family rooms and great rooms, and less likely to include less-used formal rooms and expensive upgrades. These homes are also, according to the poll, more likely to include energy-efficient and green features like low-emissivity windows and engineered wood products. This is pretty powerful stuff coming from the industry that has been in the business of satisfying stiff consumer demand for space and luxury, and it marks a radical shift in the way that builders see both their customers and their own products.

As for current homeowners, a recent report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies expects remodeling to see an upsurge in the coming years.  The same report suggests that remodeling will be far from the bath-and-kitchen-based glamour of the housing-boom years. Instead, it posits that people will be refocusing from aesthetics onto practical long-term investments in their homes, particularly in energy and resource efficiency. (After all, when you’re not looking to leave your home in a few years to cash out your equity, the size of your utility bills suddenly becomes a pretty important consideration.)

The must-have remodeling components of the future may well be high-caliber HVAC systems and tankless water heaters—quality additions to a home that can’t be seen by the Joneses, but make a real difference for the lives (and wallets) of homeowners and their families.

Maybe we’ve settled back to a point of equilibrium, where homebuilders are back to doing what they do best: building homes in which families can thrive both socially and economically. And maybe homeowners are starting to see that the value in putting their money where the real impact is — leaving a brighter and greener future to their families and friends, instead of just a fabulous kitchen island and a slew of recessed lighting.

*******

Note of the hosts:  Thanks to Paul from NewHomeSection.com for this highly conscious article.  And it is one of the great joys of working with so many guest posters.  While building and lifestyle trends are something we very rarely delve into, we are of course proud to publish.  Please visit his website and/or drop him a line on twitter @NewHomesSection.