Amenities: hardwood floors (No. 7), granite countertops (No. 5), and fireplaces (No. 14)
Just about everywhere in the country, you’ll find homeowners installing hardwood. Buyers love the stuff. And there are seemingly endless variations showing up now: bamboo, walnut, oak, ash, Bolivian rosewood, even heated hardwood for colder climes.
“The first thing buyers look at are the floors ... and when they take in beautiful hardwood, their eyes light up,” says Zelda Sheldon, a real estate agent at Nashville Real Estate Rockstars.
The data backs it up. Home listings with hardwood floors have appreciated 14.8% since 2015.
“They're a feature every generation seems to want,” says Jason Dorsey, chief strategy officer for the Center for Generational Kinetics, a marketing firm in Austin, TX.
Another one: granite countertops. Americans have been in love with the surface for two decades now, and the ardor doesn't seem to be dimming. The two-year price appreciation of homes with these counters might not seem like much—just 1.2%—but that figure has been rising steadily for years. Newer counter surfaces like quartz might be all the rage on HGTV, but homes with granite go off the market faster, at 112 days. And granite is cheaper and easier to maintain than marble.
And while we’re talking about tried-and-true home features: Many home buyers are still attracted to fireplaces, real and artificial alike. Who can blame them? They evoke nostalgic memories of getting toasty by the crackling blaze, while sipping Swiss Miss. But not all generations view them the same way.
“[Millennials] tend to be more interested in aesthetics" than in blazing heat or dramatic flames, says Dorsey. Many are drawn more to low-maintenance gas models rather than the real thing. "You don't have to clean these, and they're not a fire hazard. After all, a lot of these buyers don't even own a tool box."
The typical home with fireplaces of any type goes off the market in 126 days. Smokin'.
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