First-Floor Master Suites: In or Out?

As baby boomers reach retirement age, accessibility has become a popular buzzword in home design. As such, master suites on the main floor are a growing trend in new-home construction. BUILDER online recently took a look at whether that trend will stick around.

Laura Segers, vice president of sales operations at Frank Betz Associates, believes the main floor master suite has some staying power. Frank Betz Associates’ data of its top 100 floorplans shows a slight increase in the number of two-story designs with the master suite upstairs from 2013 to 2014 (14 percent vs. 15 percent, respectively) but its number of one-story floorplans rose by two percentage points. The majority of its best-selling floorplans feature accessible master suites that have no steps to enter, Segers says.

“I seem to remember this type of design appearing in the mid to late 1980’s and it has been continually growing in popularity ever since,” Russell “Rusty” Moody, president of Frank Betz Associates, told BUILDER Online. “Our in-house sales statistics prove the trend is real and here to stay- of the current top 20 best-selling designs at Frank Betz Associates, Inc. [from the last two years] 17 are one story or master-on the-main plans.”

Moody’s Analytics also suggests this design trend has staying power, given the aging population needs for accessibility; home owners’ greater desires for privacy; multigenerational demand; and demand from the second home/resort home market that tend to prefer main-level master bedrooms so they do not need to heat or cool the upper levels until guests arrive.

Source: “Trend Check: How Popular Are Main-Level Master Suites?” BUILDER Online (2015)

“Copyright NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Reprinted with permission”

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