Texas Trends: Formal Living Rooms Phased Out

Formal living rooms are dying off
By KATE GOODLOE / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Formal living rooms are on the wane, as North Texas buyers focus on expanding the informal spaces of their homes for work or play.

The formal living room has traditionally been at the front of a home, a showpiece to entertain visitors, said Karen Marti Hale, of Virginia Cook Realtors in Dallas. But many buyers are moving beyond "untouched" formal rooms and using the space as a game room, playroom, study or secondary bedroom.

In Dallas, many buyers turn living rooms into studies. That conversion costs between $900 and $1,500, says Lisa Suarez, director of strategic marketing for Centex Homes.
In fact, more than half of participants in a 2007 survey by the National Association of Home Builders said the formal living room will vanish from the average home by 2015. The survey named the informal family room as the space most likely to increase in size.
Ms. Hale has seen bachelors put a pool table at the front of the house and families use it as a toy storage space and play area. "It's based on what their lifestyle is," she said.

In Dallas, many buyers are turning the room into a study, a popular option offered by many area builders. That conversion costs between $900 and $1,500 – to enclose the room, add French doors and install a ceiling fan with an additional light, said Lisa Suarez, director of strategic marketing for Centex Homes.

Centex began offering the study option several years ago, after meeting with a focus group of homebuyers. While the buyers they spoke with had living rooms, "not one person we interviewed was using it as a formal living room," Ms. Suarez said.
Converting the living room into a second bedroom is also popular – but trickier, because it requires an additional wall, a solid door and a closet with shelving, said Bob Carter, architectural director of Choice Homes in Arlington.

Part of the change is that buyers want more living space on the first floor. Jamie Smith, owner of Flagstone Custom Homes in Dallas, said buyers want their master bedrooms and studies downstairs, and many now want that extra guest bedroom downstairs, too.
With an average lot "you can only fit so much on the first floor," Mr. Smith said.
Price is also a factor. Adding square footage on the first level increases costs because it adds to the size of a home's roof and foundation. "The thing that gets sacrificed is the living room," he said.

Young buyers are also less likely to have living room furniture – or to buy it – especially if they are moving into a starter home from an apartment, Ms. Suarez said.
Buyers are also more comfortable inviting guests into kitchens and family rooms than in years past, Mr. Carter said. "They invite people into the heart of their home," he said, not to a "parlor room where you greet guests."
Mr. Smith said he sometimes talks with buyers who have beautiful living room furniture and want a formal room for it. But "usually that gets overruled," he said.
"People are living more informally," Mr. Smith said. "The dining room could be the next victim."


REPLACEMENTS
Here are some spaces buyers choose instead of a formal living room:
•Study
•Playroom
•Game area
•Bedroom
•Hobby room
•Craft area
•Media room