Keeping up with the Jetsons: Why Everyone Suddenly Needs A Smart Home

Smart homes are becoming a common ask for homebuyers as they begin to revolutionize the way we interact with our living spaces. Are they worth the price tag, or just a fad?

The transition to domestic automation is a certainty. We’re climbing the first steps to a Jetsonian reality, populated with flying cars and sassy robot maids.?

It’s 6:15 am, just enough time to prepare for work. A secret panel in the wall reveals a blazer and slacks that match your preferences. The outfit was selected because the algorithm determined it was appropriate for that day’s business meetings.?

Beside them is a pair of color-coordinated rubber boots. Local weather reports that it will rain this morning, triggering the AI’s selection.?

Beside the dresser is your alarm clock, which alerts you over the surround sound system that your sleeping heart rate is abnormal and asks if you want to book an exam with your physician.

Sharply dressed, the aroma of coffee beans in the grinder lures you from your bedroom. As you groggily enter the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, the blinds slowly open, letting in just enough morning sun to ease you into your day.

You follow the sound of beans grinding to a low profile silver console in the wall. Its touch screen displays a wide selection of coffees and teas. Below it sits a spout and a small metal shelf, the ideal size for your favorite coffee mug.

The touch screen lights up with the animation of a steaming cup of coffee, followed by a cheerful female voice with an Australian accent alerting you that your double-shot venti Caramel Macchiato with three pumps of vanilla, two pumps of raspberry, and cold foam is ready. You nurse the first sip. It’s flawless.?

You hear your car warming up in the garage and check your phone. It’s 6:45 am. If you leave now, you will arrive at work on time. The robot maid chirps to life as you leave the house, reminding you to remember your latte.?

You browse through the headlines projected on your VR glasses as your vehicle deftly navigates the morning traffic. You can’t imagine how people survived without AI.? The idea of driving the car yourself seems primitive now.?

A Monday morning like this feels like a fantasy light-years away, but the lure of robot maids is drawing big tech in new directions, revolutionizing our homes from the inside out.

Your house is a living organism that demands constant attention and tender loving care.? Now imagine if it thought for itself and you could just sit back and enjoy your space while machines pick up the slack.

“Actually, most people don't want a smart home with machines doing all of the heavy lifting. They want a home with smart features that make maintenance easier so they can spend more time with the loved ones that they share that space with,” said Suzie Taggart, cofounder and Operations Chief for Team Real Estate Brokered by eXp Realty.

Lights turn themselves on when you wake up for work and tuck yourself into bed at night. The thermostat adjusts itself so that it’s always the perfect temperature.?

A robot deployed from the wall cleans counters and floors as the house’s watchdog system wards off bad guys. You never lift a finger.?

Thanks to tech companies vying to automate our lives, this reality, a work of speculative mid-century fiction, is rapidly coming true. Users are welcoming automation into their homes as salvation from tedious grunt work.?

Need cleaner air? You can schedule robotic vacuums to kick on of their own accord and eradicate 99% of allergens. Too busy to manually flip on a switch? Control your lights on a timer or tap your phone. Smart homes have no geographical boundaries so access and control are ubiquitous.???

The Ring Doorbell system revolutionized how we greet friends and unwanted guests alike with remote speaker and porch live-stream capabilities, allowing us to view visitors, speak to them, and unlock the door from a remote location.

All of this may sound like the Jetson’s or A Space Odyssey’s Hal 9000 if you’re jaded, but it’s all available –and wildly popular– smart home tech.?

Smart homes are dominating the housing market. Over 130 million households in the world are home to at least one smart device, and that number is expected to rise to as many as 335 million in the next five years, according to Statista data.

With high demand comes a higher price. Compact smart devices like speakers and light bulbs cost 30% to 50% more than their counterparts but they lower costs in the long run. A complete home automation system will set you back, on average, $1,000 nationwide and $3,500 on the high end.

Although the initial financial barrier to entry may seem steep, fans say it supports a higher quality of life. But what about the people who are sitting on the sidelines. Is tech-ing up your house worth the hype?

The consensus from buyers appears to be yes.??

Smart thermostats, blinds, and lights are slashing energy bills in the long term, and studies have shown that up to 60% of burglars will find an unprotected house instead of trying to hack your system and disable it.?

“When you factor in daily use and long-term benefits, these devices pay for themselves by reducing energy use while increasing control over the resources in your home,” said Bryce Johnson, owner of Bryce Johnson Construction.?

As a result, the global smart home market is growing exponentially. Total revenues will reach $126.1B in 2022, marking more than a 20% annual increase.

So, are we ushering in a new era, revolutionizing and permanently transforming how we interact with our living spaces??

Smart homes are forecasted to grow to $478 million globally by 2025 and have already dominated the United States housing market. Experts seem to agree that our interactions with our living spaces will include frequent conversations with Artificial Intelligence from here on out.

Still, there are some concerns over smart tech and privacy. Some smart light bulbs track your sleep and heart rate. Smart vacuum cleaners recognize the floor plan of your home and map every inch of it to reference later.

The technology that makes these objects so smart often requires them to track and memorize you. It caters to your needs by knowing your patterns. It remembers your name, what time you get home, what temperature you like the living room to be, and what days you go grocery shopping. That’s the tradeoff, a little privacy for added comfort, safety, and efficiency.?

Read the privacy policies of each piece of tech you buy, and how to enable increased security settings. Decide how much privacy you’re willing to sacrifice for more peace of mind.

That sense of well being, courtesy of the integrated security systems that smart homes provide, delivers psychological benefits like easing stress and inducing feelings of optimism and motivation.

“Imagine never worrying about whether you left an appliance on, if your package arrived, or if someone’s trying to sneak in your back door. Eliminating that stress can have life-altering effects,” said interior designer Karen Mills, who believes that if you transform your living space you transform your life.?

These mental health benefits don’t seem to be going away any time soon, as leaders in the smart home industry move in a new direction for the future of domestic innovation: “contextual awareness.”

It’s not as cerebral as it sounds. Contextual awareness is when the smart home fosters an environment that automatically adapts to its inhabitants’ needs and desires. Lights read the owner’s daily activity and dim or brighten accordingly.?

Health sensors in the bathroom mirror detect symptoms of illness and order medication on the fly. The smart home even tracks what time the family eats to deploy the vacuum to the dining room immediately after dinner.?

Smart home gadgets are all the rage for a reason. They’re unreasonably convenient, shiny little homemakers and the future of how we live our lives. It is up to us to decide how much privacy we are willing to trade to offload repetitive tasks that free us from the bounds of domestic labor.?

Life in Style, the weekly Publication from Team Real Estate brokered by eXp Realty helps homeowners make more inspired decisions about their homes and lifestyles. It features original news, commentary, tips, and analysis from leading industry experts. To be considered for inclusion in future stories, email [email protected]. If you are in the media and need a subject matter expert click here.