THE BYTE

Welcome to the BYTE, where we serve up the latest home and tech news from the last week for you to sink your teeth into.

This week we’re taking a BYTE out of homebuyers, people staying put, a new take on a wall, a possible product release from the future, and trust in the internet. Dig in!

Generally

New Homebuyers
A new report shows that homebuyers are increasingly women, people without children, and those over 55.

Oh Really?
Women comprised 46.4% of the home buyers last year in the U.S. compared to only 18.9% in the generation before. Of those women buying homes more and more are single, with 18.9% of those buying being single in 2017, compared to only 9.1% the generation before. Having children has traditionally been a common catalyst for buying a home, but that is changing as well. The share of home buyers with children hit an all-time low of 40.7% last year, whereas a generation ago it was 51.4%. The share of home buyers over 55 has also increased to 27.8% in 2017, compared to 16.1% in the generation before.

Staying Put

A new survey showed that 6 in 10 homeowners have no intention of moving in the next decade. With only 30% of homeowners planning on moving, that will not help the lack of housing inventory on the market. Total housing inventory is down 7.2% compared to last year. Existing home sales are down 1.2% compared to last year, however new home sales are up 10.3%. The inventory decline is causing prices to continue to rise as we enter the spring buying season. As more existing home owners sit tight, buyers are increasingly looking to new homebuilders to fill the inventory void.

Take Notes

A Whole New Wall
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a smart wall. The wall is painted with a conductive paint and connected to electromagnetic sensors. From there the wall is able to track when it’s touched, effectively paving the way for a wall to be one giant touchpad. The wall can also sense when electronics are used in the room. As the home continues to get smarter, they wanted to take a surface every home has and make it functional.

Hello Alexa
According to Bloomberg, Amazon is working on personal robots for our homes. The project code named “Vesta” could be like a mobile Echo and is rumored to be in employee’s homes by the end of this year and potentially with customers in 2019. Imagine a state of the art Roomba that could potentially do much more than just vacuum.

Have Faith
In 2014, 90% of people said the internet was mostly good for them and 76% said it mostly good for society. Now people are starting to lose faith in the World Wide Web. This same study conducted in 2018 showed a 2% drop in the mostly good for me category and a 6% drop in the mostly good for society category. Now more people think the internet is a mix of good and bad personally and for society.

Totally Unrelated

One Man’s Day Job, Is A 92 Year-Old Man’s Dream
Watch a 92 year-old veteran crossed off becoming a construction worker from his bucket list.