Everyone Wants This Surprising Feature in Their Homes in 2025
It’s hard to believe it, but homeowners, interior designers, and real estate experts are already looking ahead to the biggest home trends that’ll take over in 2025. One annual source of truth is Zillow’s yearly report that identifies 2025 trends ready to dominate the market. One big takeaway for 2025? House hunters want their homes to come stocked with climate resiliency features — a sure sign that homebuyers are aware of the changing climate and what it means for homeownership.
Zillow’s 2025 trends report draws from the company’s data on millions of property listings on its database, and rounded up five desirable features that homebuyers and current owners will be gravitating toward in the new year. The real estate company compiled the 330 most common home features and design styles that were mentioned in millions of Zillow properties and found that keywords around natural disaster-resistant features showed up much more frequently than a year ago.
Citing its recent study in which 80% of recent homebuyers found these features “very important” when buying a home, Zillow said mentions for flood barriers were up 22% compared with last year. These findings were perhaps due to the devastation of disasters like Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene this year.
Seismic Retrofitting, the process of making a building earthquake-resistant, was also a desirable feature, with 20% more listings touting this upgrade. Zillow also found that people were concerned about buying in areas with low rainfall amid potential droughts and high water costs. Water catchment systems (reservoirs that collect and store rainwater) were mentioned 19% more frequently than last year, while turf yards — which don’t need any water — had 14% more mentions.
Some of 2025’s biggest home trends include green amenities that use less energy and are more sustainable, as Zillow found that 18% more for-sale properties used the keywords “sustainable” and “green” compared with last year.
Solar panels are, of course, still highly popular, with 18% more listing mentions this year, but whole-home batteries, which power a home using excess energy stored from solar panels, have had the biggest surge in desirability. There was a whopping 62% increase in listings with this amenity over last year.
This focus on sustainable features extends throughout the home, as listings also had a 34% increase in electric vehicle chargers and a 5% increase in electric cooktops.
As climate change and the frequency of climate-related disasters continue to be at the forefront of peoples’ minds, it looks like buyers are increasingly taking protective measures into consideration when searching for their next home.
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