In a recent DesignLens™ client webinar titled Designing Architecture, Interiors, and Landscaping for the New Decade, Renee Labbe from Broadside Studios summarized top housing design trends. Here are great examples of each from our DesignLens™ database, where we curate and analyze the most successful and inspirational designs from all over the country.

Detailed Simplicity

Source: DesignLens

Roofline Retreats
This trend provides a balance of modern architecture with roof decks with more traditional elevations, as seen at Fairways Ridge by Pulte Homes. Their larger townhome includes a roof deck that is integrated into the gabled roofline. This preserves the more traditional roofline, while providing outdoor space to enjoy the beautiful views in this Virginia collection.

Source: DesignLens

Gabled + Boxed
Gabled modern is a beautiful, more traditional take on the modern home. Davidson Communities identified this trend early at The Oaks Farms Plans 1 and 3. These Southern California homes were R. Douglas Mansfield Architect’s take on the modern farmhouse trend that has swept the nation.

Source: DesignLens

The Box Frame
The Bellwether Place Residence 3 model elevation includes a dramatic popped-out box that includes multiple windows. This collection by Berkeley Homes has rich modern elevations that mix materials, color, and massing variations like the popped-out box set of windows.

Source: DesignLens

Linear Texture
While this trend is more commonly seen in some of the modern farmhouse elevated homes that DesignLens has featured, the kitchen in Residence 3 of Perch by Trumark Homes has a unique take on it. Instead of including a horizontal tile backsplash, this California home includes vertical rectangular tiles for a very interesting look.

The New Naturalism

Source: DesignLens

Into the Wilds
It’s hard to tell where the indoors end and the outdoors begin at the clubhouse at the Resort at Playa Vista. The clubhouse integrates natural materials in its elevation and has plentiful windows. Its design creates a seamless division from indoors and out, especially as the fitness center extends to a covered outdoor track and to a landscaped roof seating area.

Source: DesignLens

Return of Random
While Renee highlighted the random trend in flooring, we have seen this trend in great back splashes and accent walls as well. The master bathroom in the model for Miraval has a great seemingly random backsplash. While the tiles are the same shape, the color variation in this Southern California project by Pinnacle Residential makes it seem random.

Source: DesignLens

Outdoors Is In
With the growing integration of bi-fold or stacking doors between the great room and the backyard, a seamless transition between indoors and out has become much more commonplace in production homes. Some builders are furthering this transition by including the same flooring in the great room as on the patio, along with the bi-fold glass doors. Craft Homes had some fun with this trend with glass garage doors off of the great room in their Artisan Series at Laureate Park in Orlando. The glass and ability to open up an entire wall help to provide that seamless transition to the outdoors.

Interior Priva-See
Trilogy in Summerlin is doing some fun attached designs for their active adult buyers, including the Modern Collection, which is a unique stacked duplex offering. The Viewpoint model includes a cool partial wall in the ground floor multigenerational suite that divides the bedroom from the seating area. The wall is part solid wood and part wooden slates, which keeps the suite open while offering some division between uses.

The Traditional Leap

Source: DesignLens

The Shake-Up
Plan Two from Haus at Stapleton by Infinity Home Collection highlights an example of how shingled siding is finding its way into modern homes. The home has a cottage lake motif with a distinctly modern edge to it as well as a mix of stone, shingled siding, and vertical groove paneling.

Source: DesignLens

The Contemporary Dormer
Dormer windows have long been associated with traditional elevation styles. As we saw in Renee’s webinar, they are now starting to show up on modern homes. Miller & Smith’s West Park Collection in Ashburn, Virginia, strikes a balance between traditional and modern with their elevations. The model has a traditional feel with a modern edge and includes a single dormer window.

Source: DesignLens

The Modern Arch
As lines continue to blur between modern and traditional, arches are finding their way into modern homes. Casavia by Pardee Homes in San Diego’s Pacific Highlands Ranch has an outstanding mix of modern Spanish-inspired elevations. It’s not surprising that these modern homes have arches.

Source: DesignLens

Statement Floors
Statement floors are popping up more in homes featured on DesignLens, even beyond the higher-end luxury homes. We are seeing dramatic flooring in the foyer or even the master bathroom. A few highlights include Toll Brothers’ Alta Vista in Southern California with a cool, black-and-white zig zag pattern on the tile flooring one of the master baths or some of the bathrooms in Wonderland Homes’ Downtown Superior Townhomes in Colorado.

Trends travel faster now due to the internet (especially sites like Pinterest), so it is more important than ever to stay on top of the latest and greatest trends. Keep an eye out for our trend and consumer highlights in the DesignLens monthly newsletters as well as future Design Insights webinars.

For more information on design trends, see Renee at the International Builders Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, February 20 or at our upcoming Housing Design Summit in The Woodlands, Texas. We are passionate about identifying the designs that are outselling and outperforming the competition in 2019. Please let us know what you are seeing.

by Jenni Lantz | February 19, 2019 | www.realestateconsulting.com

It’s no secret that life’s been pretty good to sellers for the past several years. Even if you had no need—or desire—to move, the housing landscape might have seriously tempted you to put your house on the market anyway. After all, it’s hard not to see visions of dollar signs when your neighbors are unloading their homes for tens of thousands over asking price.

But as they say, all good things must come to an end. And you’ve probably heard that the white-hot housing market of years past is finally beginning to cool.

So if you haven’t listed your home before now, did you miss the boat? Absolutely not. But with each passing month, the experts say, you can expect the housing climate to shift a bit more in buyers’ favor.

“It’s definitely still a seller’s market in most of the country. But it’s not the same seller’s market that you saw in the last couple of years,” says Danielle Hale, chief economist of realtor.com®. “You might have to think about how your home compares to the competition that buyers are going to see when they’re shopping. And you might have to price a little bit more competitively, or think about other enticements to attract buyers.”

There’s still a chance to cash in for top dollar, though, if you move quickly. Here are the biggest reasons to sell ASAP in 2019.

1. You won’t be the only listing for long

The top reason sellers have been in the catbird seat for the past several years? Inventory. There simply weren’t enough homes on the market to keep up with buyer demand. And when a “For Sale” sign did go up, you can bet a bidding war would soon follow.

“You might have been the only listing in your neighborhood, and you could put your home up at a certain list price and you would likely see multiple offers at or above that list price,” Hale explains.

That tide is turning this year, Hale says. That’s because the number of homes for sale is finally increasing, albeit slowly. For now, buyers still outnumber inventory. But if you’re thinking about selling and don’t want to compete with your neighbors, it’ll pay off (literally) to list earlier rather than later. (This is particularly true in pricier markets, where inventory is increasing at a faster rate than more affordable areas.)

“It’s going to depend on what neighborhood you’re in, but we expect it to be more common this year that you won’t be the only listing,” Hale says.

2. You still stand to make a ‘handsome profit’

Home prices have been on a meteoric rise for the past seven years. In January 2012, the U.S. median home price was $154,700. Today, that figure has nearly doubled—to $289,300—and sellers have rejoiced.

Now comes a twist: 15% of all home listings saw price cuts in January, according to realtor.com data.

That might sound like bad news if you’re thinking of selling. But hear us out: Those moderating prices, combined with today’s mortgage rates (more on that below), mean increased buyer demand for your house.

Plus, it’s not that home prices aren’t still increasing—they’re just not increasing at the frenzied pace of previous years, which often featured multiple offers at or above asking price, Hale says. So even though you might have some more competition as a seller, things are still looking pretty sweet for you when it comes to cold, hard cash.

“Even if you don’t get an offer above your asking price, you’re probably still going to come away with a handsome profit from being a seller in 2019,” Hale says.

But again, it’ll pay to put your home on the market as soon as you can—before conditions change.

“Sellers who list their homes earlier in the year tend to get a higher sales price, often above list, and shorter days on market,” says Ali Wolf, director of economic research at Meyers Research.

3. There’s high demand for homes under $300K

There’s more good news if you own a home below the national median price of $289,300. Not only is that inventory increasing at a slower rate than its luxury counterparts, but there are more buyers shopping at those price points.

“If you’re a below-median-price seller, you will see a seller’s market that is as good as what you saw in previous years—maybe even better,” Hale says. “You might still see multiple offers coming in quickly, maybe even above asking price.”

4. Mortgage rates are at a new low

Something strange has been happening over the past few months. Experts predicted mortgage rates would rise—and at the end of 2018, they were indeed ticking upward as expected.

But since the start of the year, rates on a 30-year fixed mortgage (the most popular home loan) have been falling, sliding last week to a new 12-month low of 4.37%. And of course, those historically low mortgage rates mean you could have more buyers knocking on your door.

Plus, this temporary dip in rates creates an opportunity for trade-up buyers as well. After all, if you’re selling your home, there’s a good chance you’ll need to buy another one.

Bottom line: Now’s the time to hustle and get both transactions done.

“Sellers need to take advantage of low rates as much as buyers do,” Wolf says. “Sellers don’t want to get stuck in their homes when rates go up and the math no longer makes sense to move.”

5. Millennials are flooding the market

Historically speaking, people tend to buy their first home around age 30. And guess what? We’ve got a whole bunch of people turning 30 in the next two years—nearly 5 million, in fact, according to realtor.com data. So you can count on those millennials to be a driving force in the housing market.

“Millennials want to own a home as much as prior generations,” Wolf says. “We saw millennial shoppers scooping up homes in 2018—and 2019 will be no different.”

What’s more, Hale adds, is that you won’t just be seeing demand from first-time buyers. Older millennials in their middle to late 30s have already owned a home for a few years, and could be looking at now as a prime time to trade up.

“From a seller’s perspective, you’re going to have possibly more interested buyers,” Hale says. “So that’s motivation to put your house on the market.”

By Rachel Stults | Feb 20, 2019 | REALTOR.com