Last week’s post on NAHB’s recently released report, What Home Buyers Really Want, highlighted the most wanted kitchen features. This post provides more detail on the colors and finishes home buyers want for their kitchen appliances, cabinets, and countertops. The report is based on a nationally representative survey asking home buyers (people who bought homes in the previous three years or are planning to do so in the next three years) about the features they want in a home or a community.

Findings from the report show that there is no clear majority when it comes to finish and color preferences of kitchen cabinets. About the same share of home buyers give traditional and contemporary cabinets the same desirability rating: 62 percent and 58 percent, respectively. Almost a third of home buyers — 32 percent – want white cabinets, not much higher than the 26 percent who prefer a medium brown cabinet color (Figure 1). Significantly smaller shares of home buyers want dark brown cabinets (13 percent), gray (10 percent), beige (8 percent), or black cabinets (5 percent).

Conversely, home buyers have a clear favorite when it comes to appliance color. Sixty-seven percent want a stainless steel color while 15 percent each want white and black. The remaining 3 percent of home buyers cited a preference for some “other” color (Figure 2).

Home buyers also have a clear preference when it comes to countertop material: 57 percent want granite or natural stone countertops (Figure 3). Quartz/engineered stone comes in at a distant second place, preferred by 21 percent of buyers.  Much smaller minorities are interested in either solid surface (12 percent) or laminate (8 percent).

For more facts about the materials and colors that home buyers want in their kitchen and in other rooms, please visit BuilderBooks.com to download the latest edition of What Home Buyers Really Want.

Tags: Kitchen Colors, Kitchen Features, Kitchen Finishes, kitchens, What Home Buyers Really Want