If you're buying a new home, check out these four smart home trends
Taking a tour of a new housing development is an eye-opening experience, but in late 2019 it’s a mind-expanding adventure. Developers like to show off and test market their new ideas in mid- to high-priced housing offerings. If you haven’t already, sign up to tour one of the new home developments in your city. You’ll learn a lot about tech trends that are destined to be hugely popular in the upcoming decade.
What are some of the hottest of the hot tech trends for 2019 and 2020? Here’s a warning: look for the over-used word “smart” in just about everything. Developers, designers and apparently marketing gurus seem to think this word is attractive to home buyers. Just a few years into the tech revolution in home design, however, and it’s already become an almost meaningless adjective that simply indicates an appliance with a built-in app. Here are the four biggest tech trends on how to make your home smart for the year-end seasons and the New Year, which is just around the corner:
Unusually Smart Sprinkler Systems
Lawn enthusiasts are in hay heaven with all the new features offered in this category. One of the least pricey, and most popular, is the smart sprinkler system. Most new homes come with some version of this underground appliance but you can install one yourself with a bit of DIY savvy and a few tools. What do they do? For starters, you’ll never have to worry about wasting water again. Sensors can tell if it’s raining, how moist the ground is and whether you need to cut your grass. Built-in cameras perform that last little feat of ingenuity.
In-home Elevators
Residential elevators have been around for a very long time but are now catching on in homes of all sizes and price levels. No longer viewed as a rarity, elevators are starting to sell themselves as safe, efficient ways to navigate from floor to floor in homes of any size. Where staircases present a safety issue for residents, elevators solve the problem instantly. Parents of small children are turning to elevator installation as a way to dispense with the worry of little ones falling and getting hurt on steps. Whatever the reason, in-home elevators are showing up all over. They’re in new housing developments, existing homes as add-ons, and in many classic homes as well.
Beds That Know a Lot of Things About You
Beds that assign a number to your body type were the beginning of the smart bed revolution. Nowadays, people are opting for fully-computerized beds, complete with changing firmness throughout the night, wake-up vibration alarms, rocking motion for extra comfort and more. Don’t lose sleep over the price of these high-tech hammocks because you can pick and choose among features and price ranges.
Smart Ovens
It was bound to happen. One of the kitchen’s most important appliances would eventually become smart. But modern ovens aren’t just smart, they’re geniuses compared to most other appliances. With minimal data input by the user, these space-age ovens can deduce your eating habits, how well you like your steak, whether you need to drop a few pounds and much, perhaps too much, more. These super-intelligent devices come standard in most new homes but are also trending very strong as add-ons in existing homes.