Among first-time home buyers, an elevator ranked as the least popular of the more than 200 home and community features listed in the recent NAHB study, What Home Buyers Really Want, 2021 Edition. The study is based on a nationwide survey of 3,247 recent and prospective home buyers, including 541 who bought, or were about to buy, their first homes.
The chart below shows the 10 most unwanted features based on the share of first-time buyers rating a feature “do not want” (i.e., a first-time buyer is unlikely to purchase a home if it has that particular feature).
By this criterion, an elevator ranks as the single most unwanted feature, explicitly rejected by 46 percent of first-time buyers, followed by a golf course in the community, not wanted by 42 percent. At least 40 percent of first-time buyers are also unlikely to buy a home with glass walls or cork flooring on the main floor living spaces.
This post was originally published on NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog, where NAHB’s economists discuss the latest housing data and policy.
