The coronavirus pandemic has changed relationships between people and their friends, their jobs, and especially their homes. Since lockdowns and social distancing became the norm in 2020, many Americans are reevaluating their living spaces. Improvenet [1] studied what attitudes, ideals, and needs have risen to the top in the last months thanks to pandemic living.
While office workers have had to adapt to working remotely—mostly from their homes—home offices didn’t top everyone’s lists. In fact, 64% of respondents reported that their existing homes would serve them better with more room to exercise. After that, better space for hobbies was important to 62% of people. Next came cooking; 59% of people desired a better cooking space to prepare meals. And finally, 57% of people desired a better space for working remotely.
There have been whisperings that people are fleeing the big cities for the space and safety of the suburbs, but only 14% of people believe that city life will be forever changed. A vast majority of people, 54%, think cities will experience some change, while 32% think city life will return to normal.
Whether they’re going from city to city, city to suburb, or suburb to city, one thing’s for sure, people are relocating. People who didn’t plan to move but have changed their minds and people who have accelerated their moving plans—both because of the pandemic—hover around 36%. This is in contrast to 40% of people who claim their plans to move or not to move haven’t changed.
But many people who would like to move are having a difficult time, because the pandemic put a financial dent into their plans—72% of those who responded who intended to buy in the near future have had to put their plans on hold. But Gen Z and millennials cite the pandemic as motivation to own (54%). However, 52% said that the types of home they initially wanted, and even the locations, have changed.
More people want to be closer to nature and their families since pandemic life set in (74% and 70% respectively). And having more space, whether that’s indoors (70%) or outdoors (65%), also tops the list of what’s important in a home.