When provided the choice between gas or electricity for air heating and cooling systems, cooking, and water heating, today’s homebuyers are fairly split. The National Association of Home Builders’ What Home Buyers Really Want 2021 survey found 51% of consumers prefer electricity to gas for air heating and cooling systems, while 51% prefer gas for cooking, and 45% prefer gas for water heating systems while 40% prefer electricity. Though buyers can have their preferences, many times energy sources are predetermined based on what’s available.
However, these preferences vary significantly between geographic regions. The East South Central (75%), West South Central (65%) and South Atlantic (61%), for example, are significantly weighted toward electricity for air heating and cooling, while preferences in New England, Middle Atlantic and East North Central are more evenly split between the two. (New England also has the highest percentage of respondents with no preference at 30%.)
In the East South Central (59%), South Atlantic (49%) and West South Central (48%) regions, the majority of consumers prefer electricity for cooking, while the Middle Atlantic (68%), Mountain (62%) and New England (59%) regions are more heavily weighted toward gas.
The same holds true for water heating systems, in which the majority of respondents in the East South Central (58%), West South Central (53%) and South Atlantic (53%) prefer electricity, while respondents in the Mountain (57%), Middle Atlantic (55%) and East North Central (52%) regions prefer gas.