More than a third of builders who raised their curb appeal game during the past year did so by offering window options with more styles and frame colors or by reworking the elevations of their existing house plans. Other builders said they invested by hiring an architect or by using Revit and other 3-D modeling software.
But for every respondent like the Maryland custom home builder who is adding options “because customers are becoming more interested in rear yards, pools, and patios,” there were participants who are feeling squeezed, such as the Canadian production home builder who, to reduce his homes’ selling price, has moved away from using stone and fiber-cement materials, or the Illinois modular/manufactured home builder who offers many choices but sees clients sticking with basic exterior selections because “affordability is becoming harder to obtain.”
Almost 55 percent of participants in Professional Builder’s 2018 Curb Appeal Survey agreed that for selling new construction, it’s more important today compared with two years ago to offer elevations that incorporate multiple exterior materials. Eighty-eight percent of builders and architects currently build or design with multiple exterior cladding materials on individual homes. More findings are in the charts that follow.
Related Stories
Market Data + Trends
More Prospective Buyers Turn Active With Millennials Leading the Trend
Prospective homebuyers are quickly turning into active buyers this year, hoping to take advantage of low mortgage rates and snag homes with more…
Housing Markets
Changes in Rental Prices Reveal the Hottest and Coolest Markets
Since the onset of the pandemic, big cities such as New York and Los Angeles have lost residents while mid-sized, more affordable cities are…
Sales + Marketing
An Influx of Young Homebuyers is Coming—Here’s How to Target to Them
Strong housing demand is expected to continue through the next few years as the largest age group in the country enters the median entry-level…
