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No. 1 on Southern buyers' wish list: air conditioning

The National Association of Realtors finds many regional differences in a survey of what home buyers want.

By JUDY STARK
Published November 6, 2004

Younger buyers care about schools, parks and playgrounds. Older buyers want a bedroom on the main level and prefer single-story homes.

No surprises there, in a survey of 1,470 homeowners who purchased their homes between mid 2003 and mid 2004.

It's also no surprise that first-time buyers tended to buy older homes in a central city, and repeat buyers selected new homes. "That's an affordability and lifestyle issue," said Walt Moloney, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, which conducted the survey.

And anyone who has lived through a Florida summer will understand why 90 percent of buyers in the South say air conditioning is a very important feature ("What about the other 10 percent?" Moloney wondered), but only 37 percent in the Northeast said so. Buyers in the West want a patio or fence. Those in the Northeast and Midwest want finished basements.

One notable nugget in the 2004 National Association of Realtors "Profile of Buyer's Home Feature Preferences" is that among buyers who purchased a home without a desired feature, many would have paid more for a home with that feature. For example, 66 percent would have paid a median of $825 extra for a home with a walk-in closet in the master bedroom.

Moloney pointed out some statistical quirks about real estate in the South:

* Larger homes. Houses in the South had a median of 1,902 square feet; nationally, the median is 1,816. They're also younger: 9 years vs. 15 for the nation as a whole and 41 for the Northeast.

* Higher and higher: 26 percent of Southern homes have ceilings 9 feet or higher, compared with 21 percent nationally, and the South has the highest percentage of cathedral ceilings (11 percent), vs. 8 percent nationally and 2 percent in the Northeast.

* One-story story: Thirty percent of homes in the South are single-story, compared with 26 percent nationally and 11 percent in the Northeast.

Nationally, bathrooms and kitchens were the most likely candidates for remodeling, the survey showed. In-law suites, media rooms, exercise rooms and attics were the least likely to be remodeled.

Home buyers nationally ranked these features in order of preference in a survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors: * Central air conditioning (73 percent)

* Walk-in closet in master bedroom (51 percent)

* Bedroom on main level (42 percent)

* Patio (41 percent)

* Oversized garage (41 percent)

* Cable or satellite-TV ready (40 percent)

* Fencing (37 percent)

* Separate shower in master bath (36 percent)

* Porch (34 percent)

* Eat-in kitchen (32 percent)

- Source: The 2004 National Association of Realtors "Profile of Buyer's Home Feature Preferences"

[Last modified November 5, 2004, 09:52:50]