In the near future, healthy homes will become increasingly popular as the next big wave of home buyers—millennials—hits the market. Although baby boomers have been important innovators in the healthy home market, young buyers will take it to the next level, says Stacy Glass, vice president of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. “Millennials are so conscious about what they buy. They want to know what’s in it, how it’s made, who made it, and that they were paid a fair wage,” she says.
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Glass, a former green building materials distributor, confirms that the birth of a baby causes a lot of women to seek out low-emitting and chemical-free products and homes. “The most feverish calls I would get,” she says, “were from new moms.”
Chicago builder Weiss has found that families buying their first home and retiring boomers are his best customers, and they’ve done their homework. “Don’t market yourself as healthy if you don’t understand what a healthy home is,” he says. “You have to go above and beyond and look at it holistically.”
Of course, not all home buyers are 36-year-old moms, and builders will have to work to bring reluctant customers to the table, says Carl Grimes, managing director of the Hayword Healthy Home Institute, which educates builders and the public about building science and high-performance homes.
“We’re starting a conversation to get people to realize, wouldn’t it be great to have fresh air to breathe? Wouldn’t it be great to have a new house that doesn’t smell like a new car?” he asks. “It’s possible, and it doesn’t have to cost much more or even more to build a lot of these features into homes now.”
