Home Automation and Monitoring Are Top Priorities for Luxury Midwest Homebuyers

RE/MAX INTEGRA, Midwest recently released its Luxury Report for this year, giving insight into luxury real estate markets in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Indiana.

According to the press release, real estate experts are seeing a demand for home automation and for greener, smarter and smaller homes as surprisingly, size isn’t as important to luxury homebuyers. There is still significant demand from luxury homebuyers for waterfront homes, especially where a home has been designed to allow the outdoors and indoors to seamlessly blend together. Popular properties had large collapsible windows or floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors.

The report identifies trends across each of the three Midwest states and which are gathered from multiple sources including interviews with RE/MAX brokers and agents. It shows that luxury homebuyers are increasingly expecting smart technology in their new properties, a national trend that is becoming more popular in the residential real estate market. Some 42% of real estate agents said clients were interested in smart home devices while 22% were interested in whole home technology.

In Indiana, this demand was for fully integrated homes with smart technology that included music and video systems and the ability to remotely regulate the properties energy usage. Advanced security options were also very important. For a home to sell, style and decor are critical in Indiana and agents will often use virtual reality and video tours as well as drone footage to help promote a property.

In Minnesota, the demand for smart technology and home automation was very similar, including integrated audio systems and state-of-the-art home security camera systems as well as the ability to control the homes lights, locks and thermostats from a smart home. Even though there is higher inventory in the luxury market in Minnesota, some buyers are choosing to build. Although they may not gain so much square footage as an existing home, building allows the opportunity for buyers to fully customize the home to their specific needs and desires. An increasing number of baby boomers in Minnesota are looking for luxury waterfront properties, especially those with boat access and privacy.

In Wisconsin, the demand is for greener and smarter homes, as well as for properties that are smaller compared to previous years. Smart technology is in high demand, especially devices that help regulate the homes energy usage through smartphones. New homes and those not requiring any renovations are also in high demand.