Why did the Master Bedroom move upstairs?

How did it get downstairs?



The New Bern real estate market has always been fairly unique. For most of my career our market demanded a master on the ground floor. We had a variety of ranch and story and a half floor plans. Only the historic or larger homes were truly two story homes. Many of these still had ground floor masters.



Men like Paul Crayton, Guion Lee, Frank Efird, Lonnie Pridgen, Tommy Karam and others put New Bern on the map as a place to retire. Port O’ Pines, later Treasure Cove and then Fairfield Harbour started the great migration. River Bend and Trent Woods began to entice retiring seniors to put down roots in our great community. Soon Weyerhaeuser began Greenbrier and many other areas that increased the flow. The one thing that these buyers required was a ground floor master bedroom. Since the retirees were the driving force of our market, resale potential required others to insist on downstairs accommodations.



Then the bubble burst!



The days of competing offers were over. That nasty pendulum swung from sellers to buyers. Prices began to fall. Our four decade flow of retirees stopped. They were no longer ready to sell their homes at post bubble prices and move. Sales of existing homes were much lower than the prices contractors needed to produce the designs they had been building. For years builders had been adding the features that made their homes superior to competitors and older homes. Buyers paid the price because the homes were going up in value and inflation would cover the expense with future gains.



A new design was needed.



It was necessary for builders to build more efficiently. Most spent hours designing, estimating and redesigning floor plans. The result has been two story homes with tuck under garages. These plans lower the price by having an upstairs master. The current driving force in the New Bern market are people who are moving here for jobs. I see Marines, Sailors, hospital employees, manufacturer workers, educators, and service job workers. Most are younger with children. Many mothers want the baby and younger ones in a room that is close. They have been quick to accept having all the bedrooms on the second floor. Builders have found that this new type of plan can be built for a lower price than many are asking for the resale of existing pre bubble burst homes. Younger buyers have consistently chosen space over features and curb appeal.



Will the master bedroom move back downstairs?



The answer is yes. When retirees accept the new reality of the housing market and find that continuing to wait to move is unacceptable, we will see them again. They will again demand a downstairs master. This will create struggles for our appraiser friends. Comparing homes of the same amount of square feet of heated space, you will find that the one with the downstairs master will cost between $8,000 to $12,000 more. Unless the appraiser recognizes the value of that feature it will be difficult to cover a downstairs master bed room home‘s cost. The cost of a garage area that is not tucked under is also much higher.



The adept builder will recognize when retirees again begin to drive the market. When that day arrives the master bedroom will move back downstairs.



by Gary Barker
Gary has been selling real estate in New Bern since 1977


Visit my website http://www.gary-barker.com/