Home shoppers—particularly millennials—are ranking specialty rooms high on their priority list during their search. These rooms include laundry rooms, home offices, mud rooms, sun rooms, and more. The National Association of Home Builders surveyed buyers to find which of these rooms rank highest on their lists. The NAHB considers specialty rooms anything except bedrooms, bathrooms, or the kitchen—or what’s considered the essentials in a home.
A laundry room is considered an essential or must-have specialty room among millennial home buyers, the NAHB’s survey found. A dining room was second on the list of most wanted specialty room among millennials (39% considered it “desirable” and 38% consider it an “essential/must have”).
Millennials also showed a strong preference for an exercise room (with 57% wanting one). But that preference tended to wane with age. For comparison, 50% of Gen Xers said they wanted an exercise room, 32% of baby boomers, and only 17% of seniors. Millennials also expressed an interest in media and game rooms and two-story entry foyers, more so than other age groups.
Source: “Specialty Rooms Wanted by Millennial Home Buyers,” National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing blog (Dec. 5, 2019)
