American homebuyers have been looking for different characteristics in the homes they wanted to buy in 2025 compared to 2024, according to Zillow. Their tastes are moving away from blingy McMansions with resort-like amenities and toward properties that provide easy access to outdoor lifestyles, and that can deliver multigenerational living.
The study is based on the search terms that visitors used on Zillow's website when they were hunting for a home. As you'd expect, there are considerable variations in different states, but the company reckons it has identified a fundamental shift in buyers' wants and needs.
How Trends Are Shifting
"Search behavior in 2025 shifted away from square footage and high-end features toward homes that support lifestyles," said Zillow in a Dec. 17 news release. "Americans searched more often for proximity to water, flexible layouts that accommodate family needs and small comforts that make a home feel functional and personal.
"'2025 was the year people stopped searching for more home and started searching for more meaning at home,' said Amanda Pendleton, Zillow's home trends expert. 'Across the country, buyers want homes that can flex for family, offer access to nature and deliver small daily comforts that make life feel easier and more joyful.'"
Regional Variations
Popular search terms on the Zillow site varied considerably across different states. Here are some examples taken from Zillow Zeitgeist: 2025’s Top-Searched Home Features:
- California — Solar
- Texas — Barndominium
- New Mexico — Adobe
- New York — Doorman
- Oregon — Mid-century
- Wisconsin — Victorian
- Virginia — Log cabin
- Minnesota — Lake
- Idaho — Accessory dwelling unit (ADU)
- Utah — Mountain view
In 2024, says Zillow, house hunters were using search terms such as "luxury," "mansion" and "acreage." While Iowans are still looking for acres of land, that's not the big priority in other states. Meanwhile, Nevadans' key need is an RV garage, which rather bucks the trend.
Interior Design Trends Reflecting Evolving House Purchasers' Needs
In November, Architectural Digest (AD) seemed to identify popular interior design choices that echo the desire for Zillow's "small daily comforts." It expects trends that were new in 2025 to continue in 2026. And, when it polled designers on the most important of those changes, it found the top nine were:
- Color drenching.
- Moody color palettes.
- Livable luxury — "[Clients] want practicality like smart storage, efficient space planning, and family-friendly fabrics, but they don’t want to compromise on beauty," Danielle Chiprut, the founder and principal designer at Danielle Rose Design Co, told AD.
- Sustainability through vintage touches — Think second-hand, vintage or antique focal points.
- Dark wood — Acres of it.
- Warmth and comfort — A move away from the all-white, sterile, clean and modern toward the lived-in, warm and comfortable.
- Wallpaper — Back big time.
- Slow design — "'In the age of fast fashion, people are craving environments that are more personal and emotionally resonant, rather than mass produced,' explains Kati Curtis, principal at Kati Curtis Design," according to AD.
- Biophilic design — Sustainable, planet-friendly, beautiful landscaping, but also the wider use of natural materials inside and features such as circadian lighting systems and indoor planting.
We see home buyers' shifting needs reflected in these movements in interior design trends. They both show a shunning of homes as ostentatious trophies (although achieving AD's new look would still be hugely expensive), and instead an embracing of the house as a warm, cosseting environment.
Why the New Trends?
Might it be that, during a time of great economic and political uncertainty, homebuyers are seeking refuge in the comfort of traditional, enduring, sustainable, warm places to live?
Google AI's key takeaway when we queried "home decor trends and economic cycles" was, "Home decor trends mirror societal moods; tough times emphasize comfort, calm, and cost-effectiveness, while good times allow for more extravagant expression, but today's trends blend both, focusing on intentionality, sustainability, and creating joyful, meaningful spaces."
