This spring’s Steamboat Springs homes for sale will, as always, highlight the special features that make them stand out. Just which features those are for today’s buyers is what realtor.com calls “the billion-dollar real estate question.” Zeroing in on them is the goal of a number of “must-have” lists. One of the most carefully-researched of those was just announced—and it’s topped by a surprisingly practical feature. It’s one that reached the number one position for the first time ever.
The National Association of Home Builders’ Home Buyer Preferences poll strongly indicates that practicality is growing in importance in buyers’ minds. It’s still a cinch that a stunning, well laid out kitchen will always rate high on most everybody’s must-have list—and that a leading 21st -century contender is the open-concept design. But the 4,000 respondents’ answer to that billion-dollar real estate question was, as one commentator put it, “both surprising and extremely practical.”
So: what is that top feature—the one that 91% of 2019 homebuyers said was a have-to-have? It’s “a laundry room.”
When you think about it, it does make good practical sense—and it’s not hard to see why it deserves a prominent place in many a Steamboat Springs home shopper’s checkoff list. Today’s washers and dryers are energy efficient, quiet, and many really do do a superior job compared with their predecessors. But if their placement is a design afterthought, who wants to be constantly stepping over piles of dirty laundry, or around stacks of to-be-sorted baskets?
A well-situated laundry room allows the whole business to remain neatly sidelined until laundry day. And for the launderer or laundress, a well-lit, dedicated room instead of a dark corner of the garage or basement makes the chore a much more pleasant one.
Still, realtor.com is right: “laundry room” is a surprising Number One—probably because it lacks glamour. Even so, I’m betting builders will take note.
If your own property will be among this spring’s Steamboat Springs homes for sale, even if it lacks a dedicated laundry room, it might be worthwhile to direct some creativity toward improving the laundry area—possibly with additional lighting or an ingenious shelving solution. Give me a call, too—I’ll be happy to share other tried-and-true ideas for making your property one of Steamboat Springs’s gotta- have homes!
