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How tech trends will affect homebuyers
Terri Williams Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesWhen searching for a home, buyers used to have three options. They could search the classified section, drive around neighborhoods looking for sale signs, or enlist a realtor to find available properties. However, these methods were time-consuming and often produced high failure rates — in part because sellers and their agents were likely to highlight a home's positives and downplay any negative features. "But now, homebuyers have so many new ways to search for their perfect home," says Jerry Clum, founder and CEO at Hommati.com, a searchable real estate website that uses technology to help agents promote their listings to potential buyers.
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Remodelers ride a wave of consumer optimism
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsConsumers have a lot to be happy about. Job growth is strong, household incomes are increasing, inflation and interest rates are low, and the economy keeps chugging along, defying warnings of bubbles bursting and an impending recession. That optimism has been good for remodelers, who are benefitting from consumers’ willingness to spend and invest in their homes. Spending on home improvement surged in the month of December, according to recent reports.
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Single women homebuyers are a growing market niche
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesWomen have long been the primary client — or in the case of couples, the primary decision-maker — for residential interior design services. Due to some recent demographic trends, a new subgroup of potential women clients is emerging — the single homebuyer. As might be expected, these homeowners have different priorities for what they want in a home and how they want it to function. Although overall women still earn substantially less than men, as a group they are making inroads into higher-paying, traditionally male-dominated fields.
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Creeping prices keep lid on home sales
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsLow mortgage rates helped drive home sales in December. At the same time, shrinking inventories combined with increased demand to push home prices higher. That left some buyers, especially those at entry level, with fewer or no options, holding down the number of potential sales. Nevertheless, analysts are optimistic that market conditions will remain positive in 2020. Sales of existing homes rebounded from a 1.7% drop in November, climbing 3.6% month-over-month in December. Much of that gain came from condo and co-op sales, which soared 10.7% for the month.
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Feeling the way to better acoustics
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesDozens, if not hundreds, of studies have demonstrated the negative impact noise has on occupants. Yet, even with advances in materials and technology, noise continues to be a major challenge to designing today’s interior environments. Perhaps the solution lies deeper than controlling for noise. It may have to do with how we respond emotionally to the sounds around us. Much of the controversy concerning noise in interior environments has followed from the widespread adoption of open-plan and active space layouts.
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An acquisition could be your next great business move
Lloyd Princeton Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesConsolidation is the name of the game in the architecture and design industry these days. Firms are combining to expand into more practice areas and beef up their menu of services to appeal to a broader base of clientele. On their part, clients are looking for a "one stop shop" of design and build to simplify and speed up project delivery, pushing firms toward a more integrated business model. If you're contemplating what should be your next business move, now is a good time to consider an acquisition.
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Remodeling activity holding steady for now
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesEarly indications suggest that, as it has for the previous two quarters, growth in remodeling activity remained more or less flat in the fourth quarter of 2019. Current projections show that trend will continue for much of the coming year. Remodelers, however, are more optimistic, pointing to current project backlogs and a recent uptick in project inquiries. The outlook for remodeling business in 2020 varies depending on what part of the market one is looking at.
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What designers should know about buying habits for home furnishings
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesWhat people put in their homes says a lot about who they are and what their homes mean to them. And how people shop for what they put in their homes says a lot about what they value and how they decide what will go into their homes. For designers seeking to market their services to homeowners, understanding their buying habits can provide insights into how they are likely to go about choosing an interior designer.
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Rethinking the ‘placemaking’ agenda
Lucy Wallwork Construction & Building MaterialsIf modern politics has shown us anything, it is that even in the era of the supposed "global citizen," issues of place and identity remain connected in powerful ways. The recent election campaign in my home country of the U.K. was testament to this, as in similar ways is the recent political history of the U.S. "Placemaking" is all the rage in urbanist circles today. But it seems to me that the concept of "place" needs rescuing from its current status as either meaningless buzzword or tool of a divisive nationalism to be a much more progressive guiding principle for what comes next in our neighborhoods.
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Build your business with confidence
Lloyd Princeton Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementThings are looking up. OK, maybe the outlook is not as sunny as it was a few years ago, but it’s not so bad. Growth may be slowing, but there’s still growth. Employment keeps going up. Consumer spending, the engine that drives the economy, is vigorous. The stock market is robust. Concerns that we’re heading toward the next recession appear to be evaporating. On the whole, business owners have lots to feel good about. That said, a lot of factors are in play at the moment that could sway things in one direction or the other.
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