| 
Who’s ready for a 1970s flashback? Get ready for more buyers in search of mirrored walls, home design trend experts at Zillow said in their annual survey of what they think will be top of buyers’ wish lists in 2023, based on how buyers’ searches and sellers’ home descriptions are changing on the listings portal website.
The back-to-the-future quality of mirrored walls rhymes with international color arbiter Pantone’s designation of a shade of magenta as its 2023 “color of the year,” which may bring to mind the technicolor carpeting also popular in the ’70s.
But mirrored walls are a little more practical this time around, Zillow’s home trends expert Amanda Pendleton said, focused on adding a feeling of greater space to an otherwise small room, and often antiqued and applied in a grid for a “Parisian” feel.
Assuming they can even find a house at all or a mortgage they can afford, many younger buyers are likely to have renovations in mind, Pendleton said, citing a Zillow survey reporting around half of homeowners younger than 40 have tapped the equity in their home in the past two years, most commonly to pay for home improvement projects, and nearly all of the homeowners in that cohort who took out a home equity line of credit or second mortgage, or opted for a cash-out refinance, have yet to spend all the money they borrowed.
Another design trend for the coming year Pendleton highlighted will feel familiar to agents who guided buyers over the last three years: more privacy in home layouts and less open-floorplan living. With work-from-home showing little sign of going away, more than a quarter of Zillow listings advertise a “soundless” space for video calls, working from home or a child’s schooling, up 7 percent year-over-year. This increased compartmentalization also gives owners a chance to make more design statements and play with a greater variety of bold colors.
Kitchen islands are also growing in popularity, again, with a 19 percent increase in listings mentioning this feature, Zillow said. No island? No problem, if you’ve got a sturdy, antique table.
And, perhaps more important of all as more Millennials find themselves shopping for homes with kids in tow, backyards are a key feature. In fact, Zillow said, they’re now highlighted in 1 out of every 5 Zillow listing descriptions; mentions of patios and pools also surged by more than 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively, in 2022.
“The rising popularity of outdoor features suggests the pandemic has changed the way we want to live for good, priming the backyard for a 2023 evolution,” Pendleton said in a statement. “When the pandemic forced all entertaining outdoors, homeowners reclaimed their backyards from the kids or the dogs. Now they’re rethinking how that space could serve as an extension of their home in new, creative ways.”
Other features likely to draw buyers in, Zillow said: outdoor home gyms, natural pools alive with plants, edible gardens and outdoor rooms for dining, lounging and quiet reflection.
