New luxury home must-haves

By Lucy Maher

updated 9:09 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2006

You have an elegant gunite swimming pool, mottled granite countertops and a steam shower in your master bath. But in the race for the ultimate home, you're still behind.

Home trends move fast — especially at the very high end of the market, where new ideas take hold. Whirlpool baths, once a rarity, can be found in many a decent new subdivision. Ditto for double-height living rooms. Stainless steel appliances are practically standard.

Time for the newest wave of desirables.

Among the current must-haves for very luxurious homes: serene bathrooms with souped-up saunas, towel warmers and heated floors (to bring the spa back home); "green" elements such as eco-friendly woods and nontoxic building materials; and technology that integrates the controls for lighting, heating, security and other systems.

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"The move to make the home more spa-like is definitely going strong," says Suzan Globus, a Red Bank, N.J.-based interior designer and president-elect of the American Society of Interior Designers. "One of the other trends is creating a seamless integration of technology into the home, making what we call 'smart homes.' We are also seeing an interest in creating sustainable environments."

Low-interest rates and a booming housing market have encouraged people in recent years to take out home equity loans and spruce up their spaces, says Kermit Baker, director of Harvard University’s Housing Studies Center, with the most growth in upper-end kitchen and bath remodels, he adds. While housing prices may be slumping, Americans are still investing in their properties — an estimated $160 billion over the past four quarters, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard.

And though that's just a 1.6 percent increase over the previous 12 months, down from the long-term growth rate of 5 percent, Baker says there is still growth potential in the wealthier segment of the population.

It's not cheap to install under-floor heating systems to warm up those chilly bathroom tiles, or saunas with elaborate waterproofing and drainage systems. Little extras add up, like warming drawers — typically used in kitchens — to keep towels toasty. But affluent homeowners continue to open their wallets.

They are also demanding environmentally friendly kitchen materials including glass and metal instead of plastic, forest service-certified wood and chemical-free glues. While these materials often cost more on the front end, homeowners find the long-term results worth it, designers say.

"Today the trend is everything green," says New York City architect Arpad Baksa. He has worked on a pool-top residence in New York City that was featured in Sex and the City as well as the conversion of Manhattan's Hit Factory from recording studio to luxury condominium. "It’s important to people. Before, one out of a hundred people would have talked to me about this. Now it is about three out of five. They can say, 'I am not killing the rainforest because I am trying to get one piece of exotic wood for inlay.' "

Homeowners are also outfitting their residences with computers that cost upward of $40,000. These aren't gem-encrusted laptops, but systems that connect electrical components to sensor panels throughout the house. Control the pool lighting from the kitchen, or draw a bath from the living room.

The systems can also send text messages to a phone when the house senses outdoor movement, enabling the homeowner to log on to the Internet to view surveillance cameras monitoring the front and back yards.

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