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Pacific Coast Builder’s Conference: House Plan of the Future

By
Ann Adamson
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house plan
The home of the future will be connected, and include a great room.

Last month’s Pacific Coast Builder’s Conference (PCBC), one of the largest housing industry events in North America, brought together a reported 7,000 influential architects, developers, building scientists, investors, lenders, marketers, product manufacturers, and residential builders at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.  The event was jam-packed with a variety of educational forums, showcases, opportunities for networking and events.  Out of all the activities some key trends surfaced, which we have highlighted below:

  • Home design trends brought continued interest n flexible floor plans.  With economic conditions better and real estate at good prices, traditional home buying continues to shift towards larger homes with open floor plans. Other  design trends include a strong connection to the outdoors, eclectic material palettes and sustainable living designs.
  • Builders are beginning to promote healthier living through walkable neighborhood designs. So many Americans are focusing on health and well being that living spaces that people seek areas that are conducive to outdoor pedestrian activity as opposed to neighborhoods built for vehicles in mind. What’s more, since so many baby boomers want to stay active, developers are building more communities with walkable neighborhoods and access to outdoor active lifestyle amenities including:  equestrian centers, golf courses, hiking, nature preserves, parks, picnic areas, sports complexes, and more.

  • house plan
    The home of the future will be connected, and include a great room.

There are so many new opportunities for anyone interested

in building their dream home. The Contra Costa Times talks about the future of design, They picked p on these cool trends:

  • Homes of the future will have a foundation of wiring inside so that everything we use is more connected.
  • We will see “pop-out outlets,” a wall socket designed to tuck into the wall and emerge with the push of a finger.
  • There are magical doorknobs that you can bump into with your rear end to open if your hands are full.
  • There are fire-suppression tools for the home, another big trend.
  • There are cutting-edge home security and entertainment technologies.
  • Home owners will control audio, lighting, and security from the smartphone or tablet.

All said, the home of the future may include folks shopping for fabulous house plans online at spots like The Plan Collection. Smarter and trendier designs are spicing up house plans. There’s a lot to be said about house plans that address a family’s needs and – at the same time are attractive, trendy, and efficient.

Today people like home designs with 2500-3000 square feet of living space and the right choice for growing families, “empty-nesters” and Baby Boomers.  That leaves plenty of room for everyone. Read more

Visit http://www.theplancollection.com

 

 

 

Biggest Trends in Single Family Home Building from the 2013 Survey of Construction (SOC)

By
Ann Adamson
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Trends indicate larger forever homes are in the future.

Among some other trends, we do know that American homeowners are now upsizing to a “forever home” that can accommodate family members for future senior living, thanks to all the baby boomers who are coming of senior age these days. According to a recent study called the “2013 Characteristics of New Housing” from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average size of a new home was hitting 2,598 square feet, topping the 2007 record of 2,500 square feet. Other trends include the fact that most people want a spacious great room, with the kitchen and dining areas all in one, and plenty of room for entertaining with outdoor room-like patio areas. Outdoor features continue to be very popular in new homes:63 % had porches, 53% had patios, while 22% had decks.

Trends indicate larger forever homes are in the future.The Survey of Construction (SOC), which was partially funded analysis by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), also showed the average sales price of new single-family homes sold in 2013 was $324,500, compared with the average price of $292,200 in 2012. Of the 569,000 single-family homes completed, the average house plan was 2,598 square feet. That would be similar to this 2,525 square foot four-bedroom, three-bath ranch style home plan from The Plan Collection (www.theplancollection.com)

Other popular features included the fact that there were two garage bays in almost 64% (362,000) of homes while about 20% (119,000) had three or more garage bays.

Fireplaces continue to be an attractive choice in new home construction. There were about 256,000 homes with one fireplace at 45% while 6%, 34,000, had two or more.

55%, or 312,000 homes were built with slab foundations; 29%, or 166,000, had a full or partial basement; and 91,000, or 16 % had a crawlspace.

 

View Your House Plan in 3D

By
Ann Adamson
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0
3d house plan
House Plan # 161-1042 features this large open kitchen floor plan with easy access to the living areas, outdoor decks and a covered BBQ porch.

It may seem a little bit far-fetched, but 3D printing of house plans is now enabling customers to purchase and view their house plans in 3D. The latest printing technology can use software files to convert your house plans or blueprints into an actual physical model of your home. It is great for home builders and architects to be able to get a 360-degree view of a house plan with more details of the actual home to be built.

Online house plan provider, The Plan Collection (www.theplancollection.com) James McNair said, “Our customers often ask how they can get a better visual of what their home will look like once it is built. It seems many home builders can’t visualize how floors stack on top of each other.”

 

3D house plan
House Plan # 161-1042 features this large open kitchen floor plan with easy access to the living areas, outdoor decks and a covered BBQ porch.

 

The company has introduced the first in a series of house plans with 3D printing by selected this six-bedroom home to highlight the openness of the floor plans. This enables you to take a 3D printed model of your home to your building site and then determine the best orientation for the home plan. This to-scale model from The Plan Collection (TPC) offers a three-dimensional image of a traditional house plan.

Once a TPC customer finds a floor plan they will have an opportunity to order a 3D file, ready for printing which they can then take to a local printer. Home builders can use 3D printing to print out their plan. The to-scale model allows users to quickly understand how these floors work together as a whole. Since this is the first in a series of house plans with a 3D printing option, TPC offers the 3D printer version of the files at no charge if customers purchase a CAD File construction package of this plan.

When it comes to the best printers for 3D printing, a MakerBot will work. It is a popular manufacturer of consumer 3D printers. although not many people have 3D printers at home yet, there are many 3D printer services in cities nationwide.

This innovative 3D printing is still at its very early stages but in the future, this technology could revolutionize the way people build houses. Some potential benefits are that homes could be built to order, and it would mean fewer wasted materials in home construction, and less transport of materials and products.

To learn more about 3-D printing visit: http://www.theplancollection.com/learn/3d-printing-of-house-plans

Goodbye Dining Rooms, Hello Open Floor Plans

By
Ann Adamson
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Open floor plan image of kitchen and dining area in vaulted space.

Young Families and Millenials Ditch the Dining Room and Embrace Open Floor Plan Layouts.

Traditionalists may never be able to give up their formal dining rooms, but young Americans and homeowners are increasingly looking at houses with dining rooms re-imagined or removed from the floor plan entirely. A trend that began over a decade ago, it has come to the forefront in recent years for numerous reasons:

1) Formal dining rooms tend to be the least frequently used room in a home.

2) Tighter construction and financing budgets look for areas to cut and the formal dining room often ranks high on the list of “nice to have” but not necessary.

3) As open floor plans have become widely embraced and even loved, a formal dining room doesn’t quite fit into the equation.

Despite some fluctuations, the total square footage of a home has not changed significantly in recent years. However, where that square footage is dedicated has: homeowners are looking for larger kitchens and family/gathering rooms. This often comes at the expense of the formal dining room.

Seemingly, at the same time that we’ve seen a disappearance of the formal dining room, we have also seen a rise in demand for open floor plans or open layout floor plans. Essentially, these are homes where many of the “traditional walls” between rooms have been all or partially removed. Those in the market to remodel an existing home often find this to be an economical way to bring the feeling of more light and space to an otherwise older and smaller home.

In new construction and custom-designed homes, the open floor plan design can allow for some truly dramatic spaces ideal for both spending more time with the family and for entertaining friends. It also finally means that the cook isn’t stuck alone in the kitchen or that you find all your guests hanging out with you in an otherwise cramped kitchen.

 

 

House Plan with Open Floor Plan Layout

Pictured here is an example of an otherwise traditional home but with an open floor plan layout that has ditched the formal dining room and created a large, open space connecting the family area, dining area, and the kitchen. To add to the openness, the family-dining-kitchen area opens out to a large porch.

The move away from formal dining rooms and towards open floor plans tended to gain widespread among homeowners and buyers in the middle of the home market. As the Kansas City Star reported, homes on local showcase tours featured homes without dining rooms and with open floor plan layouts.

However, the trend away from traditional dining rooms and towards open floor plans has not been restricted to the middle market and can’t be labeled just an economical choice – it is also now a popular design concept to many high-end, luxury homeowners. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that multi-million homes from Florida to Wyoming to even penthouse apartments in New York are saying goodbye to their formal dining rooms – and reinventing the space for other, more practical uses.

From Wall Street to Main Street, homeowners, buyers, and builders are actively embracing home designs without dining rooms but with larger kitchen-family spaces in an open layout.

 

Home Prices Continue to Rise at Steady Pace in 2014

By
Ann Adamson
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0
New England sytle house plan
The New England style house plan from the Plan Collection.

Experts everywhere said that home prices would continue to rise in 2014 at a slow, more steady pace. The housing recovery pushed up home prices everywhere in the U.S.

Clear Capital, a provider of real estate data and analysis, said that over the last year or so, home prices rose in *225 of the 276 cities that the company tracked. Nationwide home prices increased by about 10.9 percent. Other indicators come from places like web-based real estate companies, such as Zillow and Trulia, and e-commerce providers of house plans.  Business is robust as many people sell their homes, buy property and are starting to build their dream homes.

The experts went on to say that the median price for an existing home was up by around $30,000 to $215,000, which is really good news for anyone that has waited to refinance their mortgage or sell their home. Rental prices in major markets are also up. In Los Angeles they are up 28 percent in a year.

According to a Wall Street Journal article today, “Downtown condominium prices continue to skyrocket in West Coast cities, as the booming tech industry and interest from foreign buyers sends condo prices skyward and leaving little left to buy.” In fact, in San Francisco, California, new condo prices are at about $1,000 per square foot.

Kiplinger’s report said, “In 2013, a sense of urgency drove traditional buyers hoping to take advantage of still-affordable home prices and historically low mortgage rates. Buyers found selection limited and were often forced into bidding wars with investors and other buyers who paid cash. Sellers reaped the rewards in terms of quick sales, often above the asking price.”

When a person sells their home, and they already have a new property and house plan in mind, the next steps are to hire the contractor and begin to build. Some of the most popular house plans today are those with a great room, outdoor kitchen and dining, and a bonus room where kids returning from college can live until they get a job, or an elderly parent can reside. Homeowners without kids often want that extra room as an office, and many people enjoy hobby rooms, so the bonus room is a must.

*See how home prices are shifting in 276 metro areas.

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