Last week, a home in my neighborhood went on the market for the first time since 1961. 1961! I’ll do the math for you: The house was last sold 64 years ago. John F. Kennedy was president.
The house is a historic 1921 Four Square with five bedrooms, three baths and a charming screened-in porch on a double lot with views of downtown. Lots of natural light. High ceilings. About 2,200 square feet on the upper two levels, it also has a heated 1,800-square-foot basement begging to be finished.
The house has great bones, including the original staircase. But, as you might expect, it also features a dated kitchen and bathrooms, plus clunky built-ins and aggressive paneling in some rooms.
It is an interior designer’s dream.
I was thinking about this home in conjunction with exclusive Consumer Insights Now research into homebuyers and their furniture buying plans.
New construction can be more fun for designers, giving them a freer hand from the start of a project and allowing them to guide homeowners who might be intimated by a blank slate. But most people in the market for a new home right now are looking for existing construction, according to the CIN research.
And they desperately need help figuring out what to do with the clunky built-ins and out-of-date bathrooms in the homes they are about to purchase.
According to the latest CIN research, 68% of new homeowners purchased (or expect to purchase) an existing home. Only 32% bought (or expect to buy) a newly constructed home.
New homeowners are defined in the research as those who purchased a home, either existing or new construction, in the past six months or who plan to purchase a home in the next six months. “Home” is defined as a house, condo, townhouse or mobile home.
The exclusive research is the latest installment from CIN, which surveys consumers twice a year to gather extensive insights into their home furnishings purchase plans and preferences. The research is compiled for Design News Now and its sister publications and, this spring, is sponsored by American First Finance. The latest CIN findings are being released over five weeks, from March 24 to April 21.
The two-thirds to one-third split between preferences for existing homes over new construction generally holds across generations, although baby boomers are even more likely to purchase an existing home over new construction (83% vs. 17%). Interestingly, 74% of previous homeowners are buying an existing home this time around. The percentage is slightly lower (64%) for first-time homebuyers.
According to CIN, seven in 10 homebuyers are buying either a starter home or an upsized home. The other third of homebuyers are downsizing or buying a retirement home, with Generation X and baby boomers, understandably, most likely to be in that group.
Two-thirds of the new homeowners surveyed said their new home sales price was (or was expected to be) from $100,000 to $499,999 and seven in 10 bought (or will buy) a home from 1,000 to 3,000 square feet.
Fostering relationships with real estate agents
We know that home sales are sluggish right now and you might not have been as diligent about nurturing your relationships with real estate agents. Yet homes are still being bought and sold. I know my neighborhood — and the 1921 Four Square won’t be on the market for long.
Homebuyers often form trusting bonds with their agents, and an agent’s recommendation for an interior designer can help sway a homeowner’s decision to use that designer to turn their new home into their dream home.
It could even sway a homebuyer to purchase the home in the first place.
As a homebuyer, there’s something reassuring about knowing there’s already someone out there who could help you tackle that kitchen — the one that hasn’t been updated since Bill Clinton was in office.
For more: Consumer Insights Now research is conducted twice a year for Design News Now and its sister publications, Home News Now, Bedding News Now, Casual News Now and Lighting News Now. Industry veteran Dana French leads the CIN research project. The spring round of research was fielded in February 2025 and is sponsored by American First Finance, a finance firm based in Wichita, Kansas.
I’ve highlighted just one part of the research in this column. The extensive research series also details consumers’ buying plans for sofas, case goods for dining spaces and primary bedrooms, and mattresses. The reports look at everything from consumers’ style and feature preferences to how interested they are in financing.A final report examines trends among high-end shoppers and designers, and we’ll be bringing you more details from that later this month. You can read all the latest CIN research results as they are released in the coming weeks here.
