September 19, 1997

Home businesses are changing our homes

By TOM KELLY
The Real Estate Advisor

People get comfortable with what they have. Once they get in the door of a new home, they often don't have time for the things they planned to do with the house. Remodeling, landscaping, designing of ten don't get the same time commitment as buying the home itself. And, curiously,with a greater number of consumers now performing at least a portion of their professional tasks from home, those tasks continue to be delayed.

A quick look in our garage is a prime example: I've got soaker hoses that have been on hold for at least three years and one of those colorful, landscaping light systems -- complete with 14 in-ground lamps to illuminate the area around our deck -- that has never seen direct sunlight.

And, since I now perform much of my newspaper, radio and television preparation from a home office why don't I use the saved commuting time in the yard? Am I merely lazy, or just crazy to buy the stuff in the first place?

Jim Hebert, whose Bellevue-based Hebert Research has been compiling just about every imaginable housing statistic for 20 years, says the Kellys, much to the surprise of our neighbors, are quite normal.

Hebert Research shows the average move-up family spends 174 days looking for the home they buy, including trivial side trips to research doors, locks, open houses, window coverings or merely checking the surrounding neighborhood while picking up a carpool.

"They are willing to do the investigation to get the amenities they want," said Hebert, president of the research firm. "Then time is definitely a consideration. They have made that initial commitment on the house itself, but once they are in, buying the services is the alternative to taking the time."

And just how much time will they spend in the home? According to Hebert Research, these numbers soon will change with the shifting workforce:

• The average employed person spends 5,460 hours a year in a home, or 38,220 hours in seven years -- the average time a homebuyer lives in a house in Western Washington.

• The average couple prepares 912 meals a year and spends an average of 12 minutes preparing the meal.

• The average man sleeps 8 hours, 57 minutes a day while the average woman sleeps 9 minutes more. Executives net an average of nearly 2 hours less sleep a night.

The move-up, or second-time, buyers accounted for 52 percent of the national housing market last year. They are repeat homeowners taking a step to a home that provides a more prestigious location, additional space or status.

Analysts believe the prime move-up market (35-44) will again compete with the first-time buyer market for the "fastest-growing" housing market title in each of the next three years. Move-ups have found the combination of accumulated equity, relatively low mortgage rates and attractive inventory tempting them to re-evaluate what they really want in the way of shelter.

According to Hebert, what more and more homeowners demand -- not only move-up buyers but also retirees and first-timers -- are homes wired for business.

"High technology," Herbert said, "has brought the work place to the kitchen table. We soon will come full circle from the Industrial Revolution when everybody left the house to go to work. We continue to see the increase of both spouses working, but where they are working is changing."

Hebert, who provides consultation for many of Western Washington's largest homebuilders and businesses -- including Costco -- says that 51 percent of all Puget Sound businesses are now home-based.

"Many people -- including working moms who wanted to spend more time at home anyway -- are leaving the conventional workplace to work at home," Hebert said. "Two years ago, we saw a high-water mark of 71 percent of all regional households (with) both spouses leaving the home for work. That percentage has come down to 66 percent and it will come down even more as a greater number of people head for home."

However, it's not everyone's goal to be at home -- even for some who have tried it. Despite the lure to live and work at home, some folks simply become too anxious when working full-time in the house.

According to data compiled by Cornell University's International Workplace Studies Program, home-based workers often miss their work friends -- sometimes viewed as a second family. In addition, office-hardened workers often resent fixing equipment like computers and copiers in their home office, creating a sentiment that home offices function better as "adjunct" places rather than primary business bases.

What really hit home for me was the portion of the Cornell study that showed even though seven million people now crank out their work from their home computers, it doesn't necessarily mean they always have additional quality time with their family.

That's certainly true here. At least once a week, the kids are excited to find my car in the driveway only to enter the house to see I'll be stuck on the phone for hours. Realistically, they can't always come first. But they are certainly in front of those soaker hoses.

Previous columns:

• Area housing market: how hot is it?, 09-12-1997
• First-time buyers need creativity, 09-05-1997
• Don't expect mortgage rates to move much, 08-15-1997
• How wired will real estate get?, 08-08-1997
• Taking a look at The Street of Dreams, 08-01-1997
• What to do about that vacation home, 07-25-1997
• Vacation homes and taxes can be a confusing combination, 07-11-1997
• Capital gains change is hot housing topic, 06-27-1997