New in-ground residential pools saw a 21% uptick in 2020 compared to 2019. States like Arizona, Texas, and Florida saw permits rise by up to 30%, Janay Rickwalder, a spokesperson for the Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, an industry research group, told The Escape Home.

“This is historic growth for the industry—the next closest period was in 1983 with 16% growth over a much smaller base,” Rickwalder says.

Hot tubs are also in demand, with some areas reporting a 400% uptick. Manufacturers are reporting a six-month wait to fulfill hot tub orders. On pools, Pool & Hot Tub Alliance members report they’re already contracted out with new orders to fulfill even into 2022.

Since the pandemic, real estate professionals are reporting pools have become a major selling point. Pools also have become one of the most popular keyword searches on real estate listing sites.

“The demand is there—a result of people realizing the quality of life and how having a swimming pool right outside their backyard really creates a vacation where you know you have total control,” Kelly McKelvey, spokesperson at Northeast Spa & Pool Association, told The Escape Home.

Pools can also make a difference for investor properties. For Airbnb, VRBO, and short-term rental properties, homes with pools may have the advantage. Sara Jennen, a real estate investor in Cabot, Ark., reports that she’s been able to charge about $200 more per night for her property with a pool than a comparable property that does not have one. Further, Jennen says she’s made around $20,000 more this year on her short-term rental and a portion of that premium she credits to having a pool.

A 2019 study conducted by LendingTree found that homes with swimming pools can be valued up to 54% higher than those without one. The median home with a pool was valued at $469,187, while the median home without a pool was valued at $305,152. The highest premium for a swimming pool was found in Memphis, according to the study. Read more: Pools May Add a Splash to Home Value

Buyers and sellers in the military have unique needs, and that may be why they prefer to work with a real estate professional who is more familiar with the issues service members face as they make housing decisions. Ninety-seven percent of active-duty service members and their spouses say it’s important to work with real estate professionals who have expertise working with active-duty military families, according to a new study from Realogy.

Ninety-three percent of survey respondents say the pandemic has made a permanent change of station even more challenging than it had been. Some of their top challenges relate to the time constraints in finding a new home, the logistics of the move, and deployments while adjusting to a new location.

Eighty-three percent of active-duty service members and their families reported not getting enough relocation assistance from the military. As such, they’re turning to real estate pros for guidance.

Become an Expert in Military Real Estate Affairs: The Military Relocation Professional Certification Course

Nearly half of the 250 survey respondents said they expected to relocate this year. They’re feeling bullish about homeownership, too: Over half—or 55%—of active-duty service members and spouses say they are more confident that they will be able to buy a home this year.

The 2021 Veteran Homebuyer Report, produced by Veterans United Home Loans based on a survey of about 1,000 vets, reported that 58% of vets say they plan to buy a home within the next five years. That could amount to 11.3 million potential veteran buyers, the report notes.

They’re appreciating digital tools for home buying: For example, the increase in virtual tours has proven useful for military members who must shop for homes remotely. Eighty-nine percent of active-duty service members and their spouses say they’ve chosen a new home without personally stepping inside it.

Realogy’s survey coincided with its announcement of a newly created Realogy Military Rewards with PCSgrades, a ratings and review platform created for military and veteran families to support relocations. Its new home buying and selling program pairs military and veteran families with experienced real estate professionals in working with service members from a Realogy brand, which includes Coldwell Banker, Century 21, among others. Realogy says the move is part of its commitment to increasing the number of military and veteran home buyers.

Between rising home prices and shortages of homes for sale, the market has been difficult for buyers, with those trying to buy for the first time particularly feeling the effects. A don’t-give-up mindset may be key for first-time home buyers.

Forty-three percent of more than 800 prospective home buyers recently surveyed by realtor.com® say they’ve been searching for a home for more than a year. One-third of respondents say they’ve been in the market searching for a home between six and 12 months.

“Americans, even millennials who many thought would never buy, have a strong preference for homeownership for the same reasons many generations before them have—to invest in a place of their own and in their communities, and to build a solid financial foundation for themselves and their families,” says George Ratiu, realtor.com® senior economist. “However, today’s first-time home buyers face unprecedented challenges brought on by a lack of available homes for sale and double-digit price growth. They are resilient, though, with many in the market searching for their home for more than a year.”

Advantages First-Timers Have Over Repeat Buyers

With housing inventories at all-time lows and list prices rising rapidly, first-time home buyers are finding it challenging to close on a home. Thirty-four percent of respondents said they are unable to find a home within their budget.

Still, first-time buyers comprised 31% of existing-home sales in February, down only slightly from 32% a year earlier, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ latest existing-home sales report.

Here are additional highlights from realtor.com®’s survey:

The top reasons first-time home buyers want to buy: “I want to be a homeowner” at 59%; “I want to live in a space that I can invest in improving” at 33%; “The need for more space” at 31%; and “I want to build equity” at 22%.

What factors are delaying home purchases: Not enough money for a down payment (44%) and unable to find a home within their budget (34%).

Top factors in a home search: Location (38%); quiet location (33%); large backyard (32%); and garage (29%). Also, 43% indicated they wanted a move-in-ready home, while only 11% said they were willing to purchase a fixer-upper.

Read insights from NAR’s newly released 2021 Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends report for more on generational buying habits:

Young Adults Eagerly Entering, Dominating Housing Market

Baby Boomers Are the Richest Home Sellers

Larger Houses at Forefront as Gen X Shares Housing With Seniors

Home buyers have been seeking more space since the pandemic, but in the luxury market, there still appears to be limits on how big buyers are willing to go.

Homes in the top 1% by price that are between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet were the fastest-selling in the luxury sector in 2020, averaging 97 days on the market, according to realtor.com® data. In contrast, homes between 2,000 and 5,000 square feet averaged 102 days to sell. Homes larger than 10,000 square feet averaged 126 days to sell. So far in 2021, midsized luxury homes—between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet—are continuing to sell the fastest, averaging 110 days on the market. Larger homes—more than 10,000 square feet—are taking 127 days to sell, while homes between 2,000 and 5,000 square feet are averaging 113 days. “Most people don’t see a necessity for 10-bedroom homes right now,” David Martin, CEO of Terra, a Miami-based development firm, told Mansion Global.

Are Some Luxury Buyers Blowing Their Budget?

For some wealthy buyers who have moved from the city to the suburbs, greater space may have been their primary motivator. But they are finding there is such a thing as a home that’s too large. “There is a sweet spot when it comes to square footage,” Kim Bancroft of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty on Long Island, N.Y., told Mansion Global. “People are valuing experience over luxury goods, and putting their money toward homes with land and room for kids to play. But they want a manageable space that is not overwhelming.”

Property taxes can be another factor behind the appeal of midsized luxury properties in suburban areas. “Taxes affect buyers, even at the luxury end,” Bancroft notes. “On a huge, magnificent home, the taxes can be $90,000 a year, and buyers may be able to afford that but don’t want to pay so much. Midrange homes are more manageable not only from a property and acreage perspective but also from a tax perspective.”

The pandemic is renewing interest in living on a golf course, according to Sotheby’s International Realty 2021 Luxury Outlook report. After five years of closures around the country, golf courses are once again gaining popularity, with Sotheby’s reporting a 26% increase in golf property searches globally from January 2020 to February 2021 compared to 2019. “2020 was the year that golf homes became hot commodities,” Philip A. White Jr., president of Sotheby’s International Realty, told The New York Times.

The states with the most golf courses include:

• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Texas

“Most of our clients are having record years in rounds of golf played and golf club memberships sold,” Mike Kelly, managing partner of the 59 Club USA, which analyzes customer service and trends in the golf industry, told Mansion Global. “Those that are selling real estate into these environments, especially those in more vacation-like settings away from bigger cities, are also seeing great results this year.”

Prior to the pandemic, golf faced declining interest, and the market had become oversaturated with golf properties. That lead to some closures across the country. Suddenly, homeowners who had once paid a premium to live on a golf course were unsure of its fate. In some developments, builders turned empty courses into new housing developments or looked or repurposed the land for agrihoods.

Now, golf is becoming a rediscovered sport since the pandemic. It’s easy to stay socially distant while playing golf, which has prompted renewed interest in the sport. “Golf properties offer privacy and security, which is what home buyers want right now,” Doug Treadwell, owner of Golf Life Properties, told the Times. Golf Life Properties sells golf homes in the U.S. to international buyers. Treadwell says his company sales volume was around $85 million last year, up from $40 million in 2019.

Some tech companies are still betting big on the return to the office once the pandemic fades. Google’s Alphabet Inc. is the latest, with a commitment to spend $7 billion this year on expanding its offices and data centers across the U.S. The company also plans to hire at least 10,000 new full-time staff over the next year as it becomes bullish on a post-pandemic recovery, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“Coming together in person to collaborate and build community is core to Google’s culture,” Sundar Pichai, Alphabet and Google chief executive, said in a blog post this week. “And it will be an important part of our future.”

Soon after the COVID-19 outbreak began in the U.S., Google was one of the first major companies to extend the time so that its employees could work remotely. That date has since been pushed to July. However, the company now expects employees to return to offices, while still leaving the door open to remote work two days a week.

Other tech giants have also committed to growing their office footprint, even at a time when other companies are looking to shrink theirs from the growth of remote work. Amazon announced this summer it would be expanding its physical offices to six U.S. cities, spotlighting the importance of still being able to one day work and collaborate once again in the same space. (Read more about Amazon’s plans.)

Google has thrived during the pandemic as online ad spending rose. Google has more than doubled its data centers since 2018 as it heavily invests in its cloud business. Still, its $7 billion commitment to expanding office and data centers this year is lower than its pre-pandemic office expenditures, which had an annual average spend of $11 billion in 2018 and 2019.

Google said that its investment plan this year will target growing its existing sites. It does plan to create three office sites in Minnesota, Texas, and North Carolina, The Wall Street Journal reports. Overall, that will then expand Google’s presence to 19 states.

Sub-3% mortgages are slowly fading into the rearview mirror as the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage continues to inch up. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.09% this week, Freddie Mac reports.

Economists continue to remind consumers that mortgage rates are still near historical lows and are hovering around 3%. “Even though mortgage rates will likely continue to rise later this year, with the Fed keeping interest rates low, mortgage rates will remain favorable for would-be home buyers and owners to refinance,” Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of forecasting at the National Association of REALTORS®, wrote on the association’s Economists’ Outlook blog.

So far, the increase in mortgage rates has not appeared to deter would-be buyers. Home purchase mortgage activity continues to remain elevated and sales of both new and existing homes are at a 14-year high, Evangelou notes.

Fed Vows to Keep Benchmark Rate Low: What That Means for Mortgage Rates

Despite Buyer Demand, Builders Slow Production

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending March 18:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.09%, with an average 0.7 point, rising from last week’s 3.05% average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 3.65%.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 2.40%, with an average 0.7 point, increasing from last week’s 2.38% average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 3.06%.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 2.79%, with an average 0.3 point, increasing from last week’s 2.77% average. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 3.11%.

Freddie Mac reports average commitment rates along with average points to better reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage.