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Ninth annual technology market study from CEA finds technology strengthens home builder offerings

April 4, 2011 | By Alyssa Dalton


April 4, 2011

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has released its ninth Annual State of the Builder Technology Market Study, which finds positive news for home builders exploring broadband connectivity as a selling point in homes. The percentage of builders installing broadband connections, at 77 percent, is the highest in the history of the study, showing Internet access is a prerequisite for any new home.

CEA’s study was conducted in conjunction with the National Association
of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center, which gathered data through the
Annual Builder Practices Survey, including new construction information
from American homebuilders. The study is said to help provide home
technology professionals with a better understanding of homebuilders’
perceptions of and motivations for installing home technology.

“The home technology sector has always been closely tied to the housing
market,” said Chris Ely, CEA’s manager of industry analysis. “As the
housing market recovers, we see a greater number of builders embracing
technology as a means to differentiate their offerings and grow
margins.”

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“As builders differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace,
technology has become not only a selling point, but also a source of
profit,” concluded the report. “One in four builders (27 percent) said
home technology greatly or somewhat increased their revenue, a
significant increase from 2008 (18 percent) that illustrates the growth
of home technology in the marketplace. More builders are either
proactively marketing and/or providing information on request to
customers regarding technology, while the percentage of builders who ‘do
nothing’ with home technology fell significantly this year across all
product categories. The multi-room audio category saw the biggest
percentage increase with 43 percent of builders proactively marketing,
up from 34 percent in 2009.”

Released in March 2011, the study was conducted from December 2010 to
January 2011, and is available free to CEA member companies at spmembers.CE.org. Non-members may purchase the report for $699 at
the CEA Store.


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