The Internet had a little too much fun when news spread earlier this year that Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought the priciest home ever sold in California…and it happened to look like a giant concrete box. Some Reddit users compared their new house to LAX and the “Avengers’ headquarters,” but it looks like the powerhouse artist couple will get the last laugh. According to Zillow’s 2024 trend report, which analyzed nearly 300 home features mentioned in for-sale descriptions, Brutalism is trending: The style is showing up 452 percent more often in listings compared to last year.
“When certain keywords appear in a rising share of listings, it’s a signal that today’s home buyers may be gravitating toward those features,” says Zillow’s home trends expert, Amanda Pendleton. So what does that actually mean for your late-night browsing sessions? You’ll probably start to notice details like blackened steel casement windows, raw concrete floors, and patinated bronze light fixtures.
A shift toward Brutalism doesn’t necessarily mean everyone’s moving away from warm, cozy spaces, however. As we learned from Eyeswoon editorial director Sacha Strebe’s former Los Angeles home, concrete floors set the scene for a subdued color palette and an opportunity to pile on texture with a wood stump, sheepskin throw, and jagged plaster pendant light. You can also take the style in a streamlined direction, as Von Dalwig Architecture showed us in one of its latest projects. After exposing a Brooklyn apartment’s concrete pillar in order to open up the space, the firm opted for Reform’s smoked oak flat-slab cabinets.
Brutalism isn’t the only trend spiking on Zillow. Sensory gardens, cold plunge pools, Murano glass chandeliers, and—no surprise here—pickleball courts are being mentioned more and more in listing descriptions. As for what you’ll see less of during your virtual tours? Tuscan-style kitchens, shou sugi ban wood, and “cloffices” (closets that were turned into offices) all appear to be short-lived.
Originally published in Domino
Text by Lydia Geisel
