Home buyer tastes have shifted since housing bust

The long drought of home construction is finally breaking.

Contractors built nearly 5,000 homes in the nine-county metro area last year, up 20 percent and the highest levels since the housing bust of 2007, according to the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis. And through the first four months of 2014, construction is up 4 percent from last year.

Buyer tastes have changed since the drought set in. Heres a rundown of whats hot and whats not in custom-home construction, defined by BAGI as priced above $425,000.

Kitchen nooks

Nooks are replacing what for decades had been a mainstay in scores of higher-end homesthe dining room.

Whats different now is the increasing use of open spaces in which a kitchen and nook, still big enough to fit a table into, are

connected and essentially one big area without a wall to differentiate a traditional dining room.

One of the main reasons for the change to nooks: Younger homebuyers arent interested in purchasing expensive dining room sets, said Joe Garcia, owner of G&G Custom Homes Inc. in Westfield.

Why put that 15-foot-by-15-foot room in there when you dont have the fancy furniture that you might only use twice a year, he said.

Garcia was one of five custom builders featured earlier this month at BAGIs Home-A-Rama in Westfield.

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Home buyer tastes have shifted since housing bust