A Home to Support Your Life

November 27th, 2019

When considering a move, where you choose to buy is important, but it is far from the be-all, end-all.  Savvy homebuyers include other factors that influence overall satisfaction and quality of life. 

• New construction or an existing home?
• Heart of the city or out in the sticks?
• Townhome or single family?

There are many factors to consider when purchasing a new home.  For most of us, location sits at the top of the list.  

For years proximity to work has served as the preeminent concern for homebuyers.  If not the driver, it at least was given veto power over others. And while this isn’t without merit, times have changed.  Happiness in a new home hinges on much more than the length of your daily commute. 

By considering the following, factors you can ensure your new home balances proximity to work with other factors that support your lifestyle. 

Functional Design

Functional design is a concept that has a direct link to homeowner satisfaction.  It seeks to make every aspect of your home adapted for your life. Functional design helps you enjoy your time in your home by configuring the space to support your day-to-day.  Homes built even a few decades ago may be missing the benefits of this concept.  

Examples of common functional design components include:

• A mudroom to serve as an airlock for cold air and a spot to store coats and boots
• A main floor laundry
• Appliances laid out for ease of use
• A kitchen accessible to more than one person at a time
• Thoughtfully designed guest areas

In addition to helping make your day-to-day tasks more efficient, functional design also leads to more efficient use of land, materials, and energy.  Green living means doing more with less and that begins with functional design.

Sense of Community

Feeling like a member of a community ranks highly among factors driving happiness for homeowners across all age ranges.  Increasingly this sense of community is something homebuilders are working hard to foster with design choices. Items like front porches, shared neighborhood paths, enhanced green space and others can all play a role in getting residents outside and connected. 

Additionally buying homes in a neighborhood engineered by a common builder can enhance this bond as commonality can serve as a connector.  Homeowners associations and other factors can help. Ultimately relationships are still fostered one-on-one, but thoughtful community-level design can bridge divides and create opportunities for interaction.

Small Town Feel

While generations grew up building and buying homes close to work, the information age offers increased flexibility in this regard.  Today, many of us take advantage of flexibility in where and how we work. This doesn’t change the importance of location in a home search, but it flips the script a bit.  Proximity to services like dining options, retail, health clubs, churches and others can now factor just as much into selecting a location as where we work. 

This ironically puts a focus back to where it was decades ago– on hometowns.  Smaller outlier suburbs are flourishing with this change, offering affordable options only a few miles from the heart of the city.

The Bottom Line

Buying a home today is less about finding a space near your job that checks most of the boxes and more about beginning with a lifestyle in mind.  Armed with this you can understand how housing can support you. All of this is fueled by increased flexibility that opens up many options unheard of just a generation ago. 

At Centra Homes we build efficient, functionally-designed homes with a wide range of locations, styles and finishes.  All are thoughtfully engineered to meet your evolving needs and those of the broader community.  We focus on the North Metro where buying power and sense of community are both strong. If you are tired of looking at houses, we’d love to help you find your next home.   Contact us today to get started.