Is the demand for bigger, more gadget-oriented homes as real as visits to model homes would have us believe? A quick look at today's offerings suggest that Americans want bigger homes, and builders are willing to help big spenders from master bedroom suites to high-tech media centers.

The National Association of Homebuilders reports that the size of an average new home has steadily risen since 1975, from 1,675 square feet to today’s 2,190 square feet. Considering this figure, along with average household sizes shrinking from 2.94 people to 2.62 during the same period according to the U.S. Census Bureau, we already know that not only are homes getting bigger; fewer people are occupying them.

Now on to the question of fancier. If we compare the trends of car-buyers who buy more expensive, dudded-out SUVs for their families than the traditional family sedan, we can see that gadgets are indeed important to Americans. The “have it all now” mentality seems to be alive and well, coloring big-ticket purchases across the board.

In response to these trends, homebuilders seem to be redefining the word shelter and offering some pretty sophisticated options these days. An afternoon of touring model homes in move-up new home areas is an eye-opener. Production homebuilders, in an attempt to give the public the opportunity to upgrade and option their new homes to death, are designing and outfitting their prototypes with more than just an occasional double door option for a home office set-up, or that celebrate-the-moments-of-your-life master sitting area. New homes today are becoming the epitome of decadence in a society that more-than-ever thrives on the bigger, the fancier, and the more gadget-studded.

Let’s take kitchens first. In their basic form, they usually contain countertops, cupboards, a sink, a stove, an oven and a refrigerator. In today’s language, those elements in a new home may translate into a granite-topped kitchen island surrounded on three sides by more adjacent countertops; rubbed cherry wood cabinets with jewelry-like handles and glide-out shelves; a regular sink and one just for vegetables (is the water different there?); a restaurant-style brushed chrome cook top with seven burners; four ovens (count ‘em -- two regular, one convection, and one oversized microwave); and an internet-ready refrigerator that regularly scans bar codes to furnish its owner with a list of items to buy online or (heaven forbid) at the grocery store.

Family Rooms? Long ago your basic family room simply consisted of sufficient wall space for a sofa or two, a console television, perhaps a few stereo components, maybe a fireplace, and a larger window overlooking the back yard. A tour of the latest in home design may reveal a floor-to-ceiling windowed wall, a carved-out entertainment wall with a big screen TV, distributed video and audio components, a family computer center, surround-sound speakers peering from each corner, and lighting dimmed by remote control.

Okay, on to master bedrooms and bathrooms. (We’re on a roll.) For our parent’s generation (if we’re Boomers) to have a cubbyhole private bathroom accessible only from their bedroom was a definite ego-trip. Now master bedrooms are considered “suites.” Why? --Because they’re not just bedrooms anymore. They’re studies in lifestyle. They can contain salon-style sitting areas, coffee bars, observatories, bedroom-sized his-and-hers dressing-room closets, and bathrooms that rival some of the most sumptuous Roman baths at the time of Caesar. Two-person showers with heads spraying from three directions, complete with sitting ledges are displayed next to multi-jetted tubs of accent-tiled marble. Two sinks are elevated to stand-up proportions so that one need not crouch too far when purging excess toothpaste. And hidden behind the huge vanity mirror is a small television set, since one would not want to miss out on any of their usual programming while getting clean.

The list goes on, with home theaters, complete with tiered seating and popcorn makers, media centers with built-in desks and networked computers, home offices that redefine high-tech telecommuting, and even what is referred to as casitas; extra, separate little doll-like houses located near the main residence, used for massage studios, exercise rooms or wine cellars. Some casitas even have spare bedrooms and baths built on top for guests, a maid, or a teen needing “space.”

These goodies offered by builders can all be seen in these United States, and all had, of course, for a price. So are we biting? In a recent Wall Street Journal article, writers Carlos Tejada and Patrick Barta report, “Like the American waistline, the new American home is getting larger. Empty nesters, baby boomers at the tops of their careers, and the young and options-rich all are buying hones with more bedrooms, more baths and more flourishes than ever before. . . . Even luxury builders are amazed at the depth and breadth of the demand.”

In the article, "Americans Want Deluxe Space, So New Homes Get Costlier," Robert, Toll, CEO of Toll Brothers Inc, the nation’s largest high-end homebuilder, notes that people really don’t need the space and the glitz, but they continue to buy it nonetheless. In fact, need is not the most important consideration these days, the writers point out. Low unemployment, long-term lower interest rates, and Wall Street successes are seeing well-heeled homebuyers buy precisely what they want, but don’t necessarily need.

Statistics show that more than 10% of U.S. households had incomes of more than $100,000 in 1998, up dramatically from previous decades and no doubt fueled in part by the increased number of two-income wage earner families and inflated dollars. But still, the sustained bullish economy has created a plethora of new quasi-millionaires, some of whom seem determined to use the lion’s share of their good fortune up on themselves before time robs them of the opportunity.

And American homebuilders, bless their hearts, are heeding the call by offering every bell and whistle their little hearts desire.

Published: January 11, 2001

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.