Home Offices Become Less Appealing to Homebuyers
Buyer demand dropped after employers started recalling workers to the office, and words like “cloffice” and “Zoom room” are appearing in fewer listings.
NEW YORK – The home office is losing potency as a selling point among today’s buyers, many of whom returned to the corporate workplace after the COVID-19 pandemic peaked.
To that point, a Zillow study found that keywords such as “Zoom room” and “cloffice” (a closet converted into a workspace) appeared in far fewer listings in the first half of 2023 than during the same six months of 2022.
The trend does not necessarily mean that owners are eliminating home offices, speculates Tennessee-based home builder Jeff Checko with the Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage – but he says they do recognize that buyers have different priorities now.
Checko says his team is favoring pre-pandemic features that are resuming relevance, including the number of bathrooms and the quality of the kitchen.
Source: Wall Street Journal (10/28/23) Brandt, Libertina
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