Trends... Are you up to speed?

Home Trends - What's hot and what's not?

HOT - Cozy, small homes on a big lot.
NOT HOT - McMansions.

HOT - Earth colors - brown, green & hand made accessories.
NOT HOT - The cold look of modern.

HOT - Informal living spaces like an oversized family room and an open kitchen.
NOT HOT - Formal dining rooms.

HOT - Exotic hardwood floors like bamboo and Brazilian cherry.
NOT HOT - Carpeting.

HOT - Mudrooms with cubbies, chests and benches for kids.
NOT HOT - Leaving all your junk in the foyer or the coat closet.

HOT - Marble, limestone, and concrete kitchen countertops.
NOT HOT - Granite countertops.

Lifestyle Trends: Greyfields
- a play on brownfields - referring to obsolete, old, underused retail sites that have prime locations but are no longer correctly configured to meet today's retailing needs.

What's the trend: Changing demographics and the continual need for retailers to innovate are just some of the factors that continue to turn once viable malls into greyfields, says Lee Sobel, author of Greyfields Into Goldfields, published by Congress for the New Urbanism and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Developers are breathing new life into some greyfields converting them into mixed-use projects often with a transit component.

What it means to you: Today both consumers and real estate developers are embracing more walkable, interrelated forms of building, from lifestyle centers with a Main Street feel to mixed-use properties with apartments and condos over shops, says John Norquist, president and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism. Investors, too, are finally recognizing that mixed-use and lifestyle developments offer more long-term value than many traditional malls, according to the latest ULI/PricewaterhouseCoopers Emerging Trends in Real Estate survey.

This is just such a cool concept to me. It feels like going back in time. It seems so simple, so convenient and a very stylish way to live and work.

This report is taken from Realtor Magazine, March 2007