SPECIAL SECTION HOME IMPROVEMENT
A FEW KEY UPGRADES THAT CAN REALLY PAY
OFF
It’s time to stop thinking of Millennials as totally uninterested in
owning anything just because they were early adopters of Uber. The
newly released U.S. home ownership rate rose in 2018 for the first
time in 13 years—it now stands at 64.2 percent—driven mainly by a
shift toward owning over renting by the under-35 crowd who’d been
wary of committing for both financial and personal reasons.
“This is happening because young households are buying homes,”
Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at home listings provider
Trulia, told the Wall Street Journal. They’re not the only purchasers,
of course. But if you’re looking to sell your house now or in the not-
too-distant future, you might want to check out this generational
roadmap of four upgrades experts say are worth it to help attract
potential buyers.
*Cross-generational: a new steel door. The
only thing that beat it on Remodeling
magazine’s annual Cost vs. Value
Report was loose-fill attic insulation,
but this project—with a 90.7
percent return on investment—
speaks directly to the report’s
main takeaway: “Curb
appeal projects, by and large,
generated higher returns on
investment than work done
inside the home.”
Plus, as far as Millennials go,
while their ideal interiors may
differ from older generations—for example, they prefer open floor
plans and hardwood floors—Architectural Digest says they’re still
into “traditional” exteriors.
*Millennials: Smart-home tech. Yes, there are Boomers and
Gen Xers who are super tech-savvy, but Millennials especially crave
homes that allow them to control their heating, air-conditioning,
home security, and lighting systems from their phones. They want
to use their brains for other things, not for remembering whether
they adjusted the heat or closed the garage door.
*Cross-generational: A new roof. It’s the ultimate curb
appeal enhancer and buyers pay a premium for one already in
place. So if the first thing prospects notice even before exiting their
cars looks like something out of the movie “Twister,” you’ve got a
problem.
*Millennials: All-new appliances. Realtors will tell you that
major kitchen (and bath) upgrades aren’t generally worth their
high costs, in terms of return on investment, since prospective
buyers’ tastes can clash with yours. However, Millennials love,
love, love all-new stainless steel appliances. So much so that what
RealtyTimes.com called “an astonishing majority of 75 percent” of
respondents in a recent survey chose to spend their hypothetical
home buying budgets on them.
DO-IT-YOURSELF LANDSCAPING THAT
DOESN’T LOOK IT
If you’ve ever attempted to transform your backyard into a
beautifully designed paradise, then you have probably planted,
trimmed and dug your way into a few minor frustrations along
the way. While good landscaping can vary by degrees including
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MARS AREA
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SPRING 2019
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