Housing Design Trends: Past and Future

Housing Design Trends: Past and Future 

Want to avoid owning a white elephant when it's time to sell your home? Know what housing design features have lasting value, then renovate with an eye to the future and you'll make more when your home hits the market.

The U.S. Census Department's 30-year report on housing trends, which runs from 1975 through 2005, tracks the changes that shaped today's neighborhoods. Among the biggest losers in housing design: split-levels such as the one television's "Brady Bunch" called home.

What was trendy when the Bradys enhanced their space with shag carpeting and gold and avocado decor, has given way to the modern preference for size: higher ceilings, multiple garages and more square footage.

Also hot over the past 30 years are ways to keep cool — homes without central air conditioning, especially in the steamy South, aren't even on the radar these days. There's also little demand for places with fewer than three bedrooms and only one bath. While the Brady kids may have brushed six sets of teeth in one lonely bathroom, even today's singles crave an extra toilet and sink in their house design.

Read more about housing design trends of the past and future…