• by Tanya Gazdik , January 5, 2016

Coldwell Banker Real Estate is releasing the results of its Smart Home Marketplace Survey in advance of the annual Consumer Electronics Show.

The real estate company polled more than 4,000 Americans to better understand the role that smart home technology will play in 2016. Almost half (45%) of all Americans either own smart home technology or plan to invest in it in 2016. Previously, it was thought that 2020 was the benchmark from when smart homes would be mainstream.

The survey found that such technology is primed to become mainstream as soon as 2016. It is no longer just for early adopters or the young and affluent. And most important to the realtor, homeowners are willing to invest in the technology if it will help their home sell faster.

Of people who either have smart home technology or plan to buy it in 2016, more than one in three (36%) say they don’t consider themselves early adopters of technology.

The Smart Home Marketplace Survey also found that more than half of homeowners (54%) would purchase or install smart home products if they were selling their home and knew that doing so would make it sell faster. Of that group, 65% would pay $1,500 or more.

Close to five million homes were sold in the U.S. in 2014, “which represents a huge white space for smart home manufacturers,” said Sean Blankenship, chief marketing officer for Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, in a release. “We are aiming to be the conduit between these manufacturers and home buyers and sellers, and conducting this research was one of the first of many steps toward achieving this goal.” 

Coldwell Banker Real Estate is co-sponsoring the Smart Home Marketplace at CES 2016 in Las Vegas from Jan. 6-9. This marks the first time that a real estate company is sponsoring the marketplace, which has nearly doubled in size since 2015.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate is also hosting a CES conference, titled “Selling Smarter: Real Estate and The Smart Home.” The conference will feature representatives from the Coldwell Banker brand as well as Nest, Lutron and August, who will discuss how "smart" is the next big trend in real estate and what that means for smart home technology manufacturers.

The survey was conducted online within the United States Oct. 22-26 by Harris Poll of 4,065 adults (ages 18 and over) of whom 1,009 own at least one smart home product. Smart home technology/products were defined as products or tools that aid in controlling a home’s functions such as lighting, temperature, security, safety, and entertainment, either remotely by a phone, tablet, computer or with a separate automatic system within the home itself.