Among the predictions for 2001 in the real estate arena, some of the more interesting come from Susan Szenasy, editor in chief of Metropolis magazine. She was invited to speak at the annual meeting of the Hillier Group, New Jersey’s largest architectural firm. Szenasy pointed to several themes in architecture, such as environmental awareness and multiculturalism, that are often overlooked. “While designers and architects are looking at the life-cycle cost of building materials and furnishings, nothing will really change until design education integrates sustainability into the curriculum and designers start integrating current environmental knowledge,” she said.
“Only then will design move into a new aesthetic that respects the topography of the site and uses local materials. The result will be architecture and interior design that is more personal and less cookie-cutter.”
The impetus for some sort of shakeup in the numbing sameness of much of our residential design could come on two fronts. Szenasy sees the confluence of youth and technology giving the profession a new generation of designers who are humanists.
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“They want to design affordable products and housing — and they don’t care too much for over-designed Post-modernism,” she said. “Today’s youth uses its knowledge of technology to create organic designs. Their designs are a natural outgrowth of their new tool, the computer. Therefore, we’ll be seeing these soft, rounded shapes more and more.”
Plus, the growing diversity in the classrooms of the nation’s major universities will bring a multicultural influence. “The students come from many cultures and races. White males, who used to dominate architecture schools especially, are in the minority,” Szenasy said. “When these students bring their unique points of view to the design dialogue — be they Hispanic, African-American or Asian — our designed world will be enriched.”
Cities draw investment
The back-to-the-city trend that has become so evident in the last few years will continue unabated, as the advantages of the urban core draw not only more people but also more investment of all types.
According to the 2001 Emerging Trends report, produced by Chicago-based Real Estate Research Corp., America’s five 24-hour cities are the best positioned for growth in the new year. The five — Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Washington — are all rated in the Top 10 in investment attractiveness.
The development of additional residential units in the downtown areas of those cities, a trend in which Chicago has been in the lead, will only enhance the appeal of other types of real estate, said Kenneth Riggs, CEO of Real Estate Research Corp.
“The same things that make downtown Chicago attractive to empty-nesters and young professionals — the culture, excitement, amenities — are what investors like too,” Riggs told members of the Institute of Real Estate Management.
Internet still growing
Dot-com companies may have taken it on the chin in the second half of 2000, but the Internet is not going away anytime soon. And it’s certainly not going to disappear from the realty transaction.
New research from the National Association of Realtors found that 37 percent of all home buyers in 1999 used the Internet as a home-search tool. That year, there were more than 5 million sales of existing homes, meaning nearly 2 million people were out surfing for housing-related information.
The vast majority of those buyers, 89 percent, were on the Web looking up listings. Only 30 percent were after neighborhood information.
Almost half, 48 percent, eventually visited a house they had initially viewed online and they made the visit with a realty agent. Fifteen percent actually purchased a home they found online by using an agent. Only 1 percent bought a house they found on the Web without ever seeing a Realtor.
The NAR’s managing director of business research, Ellen Roche, said the Internet users typically visited two more houses in person than the non-Internet prepped buyers.
“It may well be then, that the home-buying process is likely to be more intense for both the home buyer and the real estate professional,” Roche wrote.
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