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10 Things Americans Want In Their Homes

There’s the ideal home. Then there are the homes in which we actually live. The discrepancy between the two is the topic of a new report from the Demand Institute on what it calls the housing satisfaction gap. More than 10,000 households—including renters and owners—participated in a survey about their current homes and their ideal ones. The Demand Institute is a non-profit organization run by the Conference Board and Nielsen.

Overall, people are generally satisfied with their homes, but there are some desires—both discretionary and non-discretionary—holding people back from being completely happy with where they live, said Jeremy Burbank, vice president of the Demand Institute.

The following are Americans’ top 10 housing desires that, for some, aren’t being met.

1. Energy Efficiency
Perhaps because the desire to save money on rising energy costs is so universal, energy efficiency has the highest satisfaction gap in the report. While 71% of respondents said they thought a home’s energy efficiency was important, 35% of those people said they were satisfied with their current home’s energy efficiency (a satisfaction gap of 36%), according to the report. “The increase in the cost of energy has become increasingly burdensome on households,” and there’s accompanying awareness and concern about the environment, Burbank said. Average household spending on home electricity has grown 56% since 2000, according to the report.

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