The Top Features Buyers Want in Their Bathrooms

Bathrooms play an important role for homebuyers, and some features within them can make or break a buyer’s decision to purchase. The National Association of Home Builders’ What Home Buyers Really Want survey found nearly 50% of surveyed homebuyers said 12 out of the proposed 18 bathroom features were desirable or essential. The top four bathroom features pertain to primary bathrooms: a linen closet, both shower and tub, double vanity, and private toilet compartment. The feature deemed essential to most homebuyers (36%), meaning this feature would greatly impact a buyer’s decision to purchase, was both a shower and bathtub in the primary bath.

Slightly lower majorities also want the primary bath to have multiple shower heads (59 percent), a whirlpool (56 percent), and a body spray panel (56 percent).  Results also indicate that a white toilet, tub, and sink are preferable (65 percent) than their color counterparts (44 percent).

Some bath features are significantly more popular among younger buyers.  The leading example is dual toilets in the primary bath, a feature rated essential or desirable by 48 percent of Millennials  (born 1980 to 1996) and 50 percent of Gen X (born 1965 to 1979) buyers, but only by 20 percent of the older group of Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964).   Similarly, while at least half of the younger two generations want to have His & Her baths, a skylight in the primary bath, and a bidet, the share of Boomers interested in these features only ranges from 25 percent to 35 percent.  These generational differences are all statistically significant after controlling for a  number of other factors, particularly the income and household composition of the buyers.

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