Get Smart: U.S. Homeowners are Making the Move to “Smart Technology”

Cartus’ sister company, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, recently released the Coldwell Banker^® Smart Home Marketplace Survey, which polled more than 4,000 Americans on their use of smart home technology. According to the survey, nearly half (45 percent) of all Americans either own smart home technology or plan to invest in it in 2016. The survey also found that more than half of homeowners (54 percent) would purchase or install smart home products if they were selling their home and knew that doing so would make it sell faster.

According to market research by MarketsandMarkets, the global smart homes market value was valued at $20.38 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach $58.68 billion by 2020. North America leads the world in smart home technology use, but demand in Europe and Asia-Pacific is expected to grow because of the need for lower power consumption.

So, What Makes A Home So “Smart”?

More than three-quarters (76 percent) of Americans think that having just one category of smart technology in your home isn’t enough for it to be considered smart. So, what is needed for a home to be considered “smart”? The most common elements include:

• Security (e.g., locks and alarm systems)
• Temperature control (e.g., thermostats and fans)
• Lighting (e.g., light bulbs and lighting systems)
• Safety (e.g., fire/carbon monoxide detectors and nightlights)
• “Smart appliances” (e.g., smart refrigerators, washers, and dryers)
• Entertainment (e.g., smart TVs and speaker systems)

Additional Smart Home Marketplace Survey Findings

• According to real estate brokers surveyed this past spring at the Cartus Broker Network Conference, Millennials (45%) are five times more likely to want smart home technology than are their Boomer counterparts, at 8%. And Millennials are twice as likely (16%) to want a home with a specific fitness room, compared with Boomers (7%).
• The most popular type of smart home technology that people already own is smart entertainment, such as smart TVs and speaker systems (44 percent of people with smart home technology).
• Older generations are adopting certain types of smart home technology faster than younger ones. For instance, 40 percent of the over-65 crowd who own smart home products currently have smart temperature products, compared to only 25 percent of Millennials (ages 18 to 34).
• Seventy (70) percent of respondents who currently have smart home technology said buying their first smart home product made them more likely to buy another one.

Learn more by viewing the full results of the Coldwell Banker^® Smart Home Marketplace Survey.