Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Smaller, cheaper, simpler.

Or, as Eliot Nusbaum put it, it's all about cents and sensibility. Nusbaum is executive editor for design at Better Homes & Gardens magazine, which annually polls its readers and others to get a sense of what's hot in housing or, as the current case may be, tepid. In the current market, even tepid will do.

Nusbaum recently presented the magazine's read of current homebuyer sentiment recently to attendees at the International Builders Show, the annual convention and trade show of the National Association of Home Builders. The publication polled readers who say they plan to purchase a home within the next year, in addition to gauging the sentiments of designers, builders and others. Their responses indicate that they absolutely get it that the real estate boom is over and it's time to start acting like grown-ups.

"Downsizing continues," said Nusbaum, who added that his reader sentiments were right in line with NAHB data showing that, for the first time since the early 1980s, the average newly built home declined in size, to 2,480 square feet from 2,520 square feet. "And we're seeing practical considerations. Homebuyers' priorities are price, energy, organization and comfort."

So, they're looking for rooms that can do double duty, he said. For example, buyers and people who are remodeling still want a home office, but many said they'd prefer one that also can serve as a craft or hobby room.

And though, like last year's show, the exhibitor booths on the trade show floor were filled to overflowing with products that boasted a "green" label, consumers are tailoring their definition of the word.

"They're moving away from that term to ‘energy efficiency,'" Nusbaum said. That is, when it comes to their houses, saving the rain forest is less on homebuyers' minds than saving on their heating bills.

He said home features made from recycled materials or produced with sustainability in mind are important to buyers only up to a point.

"Builders say their clients have a general interest in it, but as the price is presented, it falls away," Nusbaum said.

That sentiment was seconded by Rose Quint, the NAHB's assistant vice president for survey research, who poured out a raft of separately compiled data on just what homebuyers are looking for.

"I see a theme of energy efficiency," Quint said. She cited a list of 40 features that are considered "must-haves" by active home seekers. The top spots were dominated by such things as programmable thermostats, energy-efficient windows and well-insulated front doors.

Granite countertops didn't make that must-have list, she said. I heard the same thing at a separate presentation on kitchen trends, in which prominent kitchen designers said the material has become so widely available that it's being looked at as something for a "starter kitchen."

Is this a whoa moment?

Not at all, said Nusbaum, who's confident that granite is still an object of desire.

His magazine's research suggests that it's such a priority that home remodelers will make economic trade-offs, such as painting the old cabinetry, in order to get it.

Along the downsizing lines, the percentage of homes with three or more bathrooms or four or more bedrooms declined in 2009, Quint said. Along the same lines, the average new home cost $267,000 in 2009, down from $293,000 the year before.

Both Quint's and Nusbaum's studies indicate that even with other space-squeezing going on, homebuyers will dig in their heels on larger kitchen size.

"There's a return to thinking about spending more time with family," Nusbaum said, and thus the ability to eat at a kitchen table, as opposed to stools at a countertop, is highly desirable.

Make the exterior, including landscaping, as low-maintenance as possible, Nusbaum said. "Gardening is still America's top hobby, but most people don't want to deal with it."

This housing sobriety is probably going to outlast the recession, said Quint. She said this movement is being driven by first-time and financially chastened buyers.

"First-time homebuyers coming to the market is an impact that will last for years," she said. "Plus, the era of easy money is over. And because money is tight, I think this is here to stay."