Home buying decisions are perhaps the single most important decisions that individuals have to make in their lifetime. This is so because homeownership is highly valued and, in almost all cases, is a reflection of an individual’s worth. A lot of constraints, mostly financial, have to be weighed in and traded off against individual’s needs and preferences. This is in a bid to ensure that one doesn’t only buy a valuable home but also one that best suits their needs and preferences. For both home developers or investors and home seekers, it is imperatively important to have full market knowledge of the residential houses market to avoid making costly mistakes in homeownership transactions.
This particular study was therefore aimed at finding out and explaining how various home amenities and in particular car garages and swimming pools affect residential choices in homeownership. The specific research question the study aimed to answer was whether houses better sell when they are incorporated with both garage and pool amenities, with pool only, or, with garage only. In order to ascertain this, it was observed important to look into each scenario individually. It was also observed prudent to incorporate the residential area as a variable as this particular variable alone has a significant influence on home pricing.
Firstly, we reviewed recent home sales statistics with a keen interest in the price and distance from the city center of residential houses that had both the garage and pool. From the statistics reviewed here, it was observed that distance or locality from the city center and also to a large extent size of the facility acquired largely explained the difference in pricing or the price tag. As regards to the extent to which the garage and pool facilities influenced the pricing, it could not be established with certainty. Secondly, it was observed that about 30% of the homes purchased had pool facilities.
The main deduction from the literature reviewed was that of the various variables that were being investigated, only two were of direct relevance to the research question. These were; home price and distance. Home price was found to be largely explained by the distance or area from the city center. This confirmed the popular belief among economists who have studied the housing market that location has a huge bearing on housing pricing. It was thus concluded that a deeper understanding of the causal relationship between the two should be explored further.
In conclusion, the main objectives of the study were to ascertain whether pool and garage amenities do have a significant bearing on home pricing. From the research findings, these two facilities yield a very insignificant role in determining home pricing. The first and second hypotheses, therefore, do not hold, and we accept the third hypothesis i.e., the sales can largely depend on the area where the houses are located. The research carried was, therefore, very relevant to the issue being investigated. It would be recommended that the research question be reframed so as to investigate the causal relationship between housing pricing and location. Should there need, however, to find out the tastes and preferences of homeowners on pools and garage facilities or both, a survey questionnaire is most appropriate? This, however, cannot be done in relation to residential housing pricing. Additional research should be done to explore the satisfaction derived by homeowners by having these two amenities incorporated in their homes.