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Business Insider
a day ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Here are the 4 home trends that are hot in 2025
The NAHB asked 3,000 recent and prospective buyers what they want most in newly built homes. Newly built homes may be shrinking, but buyers aren't sacrificing comfort and quality. Buyers said that a great outdoor living space and smart technology are must-haves. Americans buying newly built homes are working with a lot less space, but that doesn't mean their expectations are any lower. In fact, it means they're looking to maximize every square foot. At the 2025 National Association of Real Estate Editors conference held earlier this month in New Orleans, Rose Quint, assistant vice president for survey research at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), shared during a panel discussion what today's homebuyers value most. Drawing from NAHB's 2024 What Home Buyers Really Want report, a national survey of more than 3,000 recent and prospective homebuyers, Quint revealed that buyers are prioritizing spacious kitchens, ample outdoor space, and smart technology. "High home prices and elevated mortgage rates have made homebuyers keenly aware of what features add the most value to their daily lives," Quint said. "Buyers have determined that investing in the kitchen, in a patio, and home security features enhances the livability of a home." According to NAHB's survey, here are four trends shaping homebuying — from a bigger kitchen that focuses on efficiency to smart thermostats that allow homeowners to control their home's temperature remotely. 1. Buyers want a bigger kitchen. The American home may be shrinking, but one space buyers aren't willing to give up is the kitchen. "For those buying a smaller house, if that's what it takes to make the math work, we ask: What part of the home will you shrink? And they say, take the square footage from the home office, the dining room, even the living room, but for God's sake, stay away from the kitchen," Quint said. Homebuyers don't just want a large kitchen; they're looking for efficiency and a space that brings the family together. This means they're asking for bigger island spaces, walk-in pantries to store food and appliances, and even special-use storage for wine and spices. NAHB data shows that a central kitchen island is a top desired feature among buyers. In some luxury homes, Quint said buyers are even requesting two islands to accommodate cooking, dining, and entertaining needs. 2. Porches and patios are making a comeback. Outdoor living areas have become more important than ever, especially as homes get smaller and offer fewer gathering spaces. Survey data from the NAHB shows that 86% of respondents said they want a patio, and 81% said they'd like a back porch — a sign that porches are making a comeback. The numbers tell the story. In 2008, just 47% of newly built single-family homes had patios; by 2023, that figure had climbed to 64%. Likewise, the share of homes with porches rose from 60% to 68% over the same period. "Buyers want a patio. They want a front porch," Quint added. "They want exterior lighting to enhance the outdoor appeal of their home, landscaping, and a deck. If the home's shrinking, at least that space allows them to have more living space." 3. The modern McMansion can't beat a classic home. For a while, it felt like you couldn't drive through a neighborhood without seeing rows of boxy, modern homes. You know the look — white or gray stone exteriors, oversized rectangular windows, and often a flat roof. They may be trendy, but those minimalist builds may not be dominating the market after all. Today's buyers are leaning more toward traditionally designed homes inspired by classic styles like the kind of house you'd see on "Full House." While there's no clear majority when it comes to architectural preference, NAHB's survey found that 34% of respondents prefer traditional homes. Meanwhile, 26% favor contemporary designs, 17% lean toward bold modern styles, and just 12% prefer transitional homes, which blend modern aesthetics with traditional elements. 4. Homebuyers are tech-obsessed. From smartphones to smart cars, Americans crave cutting-edge tech, so of course, we want it in our homes, too. The NAHB found that the tech features homebuyers want most in their homes include wireless security systems, security cameras, video doorbells, smart thermostats that let them automate their home's temperature, and multi-zone HVAC systems so they can control the temperature in each room separately. "The reason these five features top the list is because homeowners are relying on technology to do two things: increase the safety of their home and improve temperature control," Quint said. "They want technology that works for them."
USA Today
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
How 'Jaws' fans can celebrate 50th anniversary at Universal Studios Hollywood, Florida
It's been 50 years since 'Jaws' first terrorized a generation of moviegoers. Nowadays, fans are more likely to squeal with delight than fear over the beloved Universal franchise, which still has an entire Amity Village at Universal Studios Japan. But fans don't have to go that far to celebrate the film's golden anniversary this summer. Here's what to do at Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort. Do they still have Jaws at Universal Studios Hollywood? Yes. There's still a Jaws encounter on the World-Famous Studio Tour. (Tip: Sit to the right of the tram for the best view.) The tour is available all year long, but guests may notice a 'Jaws' addition to the Hollywood sign replica this summer. As part of Universal Studios Hollywood's Mega Movie Summer through Aug. 10, guests can also snap photos with the park's hanging shark, which has been brought back for an anniversary photo opp, along with a new meet-and-greet with Captain Quint and Chief Brody. Guests can find these outside the WaterWorld attraction. The California park has also temporarily transformed its quick-service Hollywood & Dine restaurant into Amity Island Cafe. Its 'Jaws'-inspired menu includes a lobster roll, a vegan crab cake sandwich and an oversized donut that looks like a lifesaver. From 'Jaws' to 'The Meg': Ranking the 10 best shark movies of all time Is Jaws still at Universal Studios Florida? Universal Orlando Resort's Jaws ride retired in 2012. However, its hanging shark is still displayed year-round. In honor of the film's 50th anniversary, Universal Studios Florida has also brought out two additional photo opps tied to the former attraction: one is its original billboard; the other looks like one of the boats from the ride, being chased by a shark. Guests will find these in the park's San Francisco area through July 6, along with limited-time "Jaws"-themed snacks. Each night until Aug. 24, guests can catch CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular, on the park's waterfront before closing. The nighttime show features dancing fountains, projections, and music from some of Universal's most iconic films, including 'Jaws.' Pending weather, each day through Nov. 13, guests can also catch the Universal Mega Movie Parade, which features live characters, floats and Easter eggs from various Universal films, including 'Jaws.' Dates are subject to change. Guests should check Universal Orlando's free app for the latest updates.
BBC News
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
From Orkney to Amity Island: Jaws star Robert Shaw's Stromness childhood
For film fans across the world, the English actor Robert Shaw will always be Quint. The hard-bitten, shark-hunting, salty sea dog from Steven Spielberg's 1975 summer blockbuster Jaws was a defining role for the distinguished stage and screen star, the more so since it came just three years before his sudden death at the age of has seen a surge of events and media coverage marking the 50th anniversary of the film, now firmly established as a much-loved and lauded less well-known is that Shaw's path to stardom and success included five years as a child in Orkney, a period which would have a huge effect on the rest of his life. Speaking on a US chat show more than more than 30 years after leaving Orkney, Shaw spoke movingly of the influence the islands had on him and his family."My father killed himself when I was 12," he said. "He was an extraordinary man, a marvellous man and he was a doctor in the Orkney Islands, which is right at the top of Scotland. Those terrible islands where there's wind and sea and you get a hundred-mile-an-hour gales."He was the lighthouse doctor and he used to keep a medical bag on each island and when you couldn't get in because the sea was so rough, my father would go out... and jump off and swim ashore."And there would be his medical bag and then he'd deliver whatever baby was to be delivered." That story perfectly summed up the mixture of romance, nostalgia and pain which Shaw carried with him from his Orkney childhood. Robert Shaw was born in Lancashire in 1927 and lived there until the age of seven, when his father Thomas took over a GP practice in Stromness, Orkney's second-largest town. The new doctor and his wife moved there with their five children. The couple were Cornish, though both had Scottish ancestry. They may have felt a connection with their new home at the other end of the British Isles, but they undoubtedly stood apart from their new Shaw Myers is Robert Shaw's nephew. His mother, Joanna, was the actor's younger sister. His new book - Robert Shaw: An Actor's Life on the Set of Jaws and Beyond - explores the period in struck by a class photograph which shows a young Robert Shaw standing by himself on the back row, distinctly separated from his classmates."Isn't it unusual? Or interesting, I should say. How Robert is standing apart and rigidly at attention and very much looks the outsider," he says. "By that point he was six or seven years old, he had an English accent and accents are really important, especially with children. They define if you're part of a group or an outsider. The Shaws were outsiders."Speaking on BBC Radio Orkney in 2018, Christopher's mother Joanne offered some insight into what isolated her family from others."I just remember what a unit we were, because for various reasons mother wouldn't have other children over after school," she the "various reasons" other children weren't allowed to play at the Shaw house was the doctor's increasingly out of control around six years in Stromness their mother left him and took the children south, to England. Eventually he followed and the family was briefly reunited. But after years of struggling with his addiction, Thomas took his own life. Robert would go on to enjoy some success as a novelist as well as an actor, and Christopher believes much of his Orkney childhood can be found in his two published works The Hiding Place, and The Sun former includes descriptions of landscapes clearly inspired by the shipwrecks in Scapa Flow. And there are emotional resonances too."He was pulling from his Orkney experiences as a child for much of what's in The Hiding Place. And then in The Sun Doctor, I think he went a step further than that. "The father is an alcoholic who didn't kill himself but died and the mother was blamed," he says."And that was something that my grandmother always had to deal with. That some people blamed her for the death of her husband. Whether she had killed him directly or drove him to drink." After a short spell as a teacher, Robert trained as an actor and spent much of the 1950s building up his career on stage and screen. He was the star of the popular TV drama The Buccaneers but his film breakthrough came in 1963 as a villainous heavy with the rather Scottish name of Donald Grant in the second Bond film From Russia With Love. That same year he returned to his former home in Stromness. He was on honeymoon with his second wife, the actress Mary Ure. They stayed at the Stromness Hotel and while there were talked into helping out with a fundraising event to raise the cash for a swimming pool for the town. A photograph taken at the event shows the couple posing with the band and the winner of the 'Miss Swimming Pool Stromness' beauty contest, Irene Irene Linklater, she fondly remembers that night, 62 years on."That was a big surprise. I never really got over it," she says."[I] Knew who they were but I had never seen them before and I hadn't still seen a film that they were in but I knew of them." A week after Shaw's death in 1978, BBC Radio Orkney broadcast a tribute. It was presented by Archie Bevan, a local teacher and author who was one of the founders of the islands' St Magnus Bevan, who died in 2015, described that 1963 visit and spoke warmly of Shaw's 1963 visit."I remember that my first meeting with Robert Shaw that year was on the Stromness golf course. He was playing in a foursome with some members of the local club. "His dark hair had been bleached to a startling, Aryan blonde, a memento of his starring role as a villain in From Russia With Love, which he'd just finished shooting".Local artist and author Bryce Wilson has written a history of Stromness. "He loved to go playing golf with some of his pals who were still around. I remember him coming with Mary Ure. That was the talk of the town," he career brought him great acclaim and riches, with an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons and starring roles in enduring classics such as Battle of The Bulge, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The Sting. But he was a troubled man. Like his father, he struggled with alcohol. It impacted upon his work and home life. He was married three times and had 10 children. After years of mental health and addictions issues, Mary Ure died of an accidental overdose of alcohol and prescription medicine in 1975, just two months before the release of three years later Shaw, by then remarried and living by a lake in rural Ireland, died suddenly of a heart attack. He was is probably the film he is most remembered for. It changed the way Hollywood released summer movies, creating the modern blockbuster. It confirmed 28-year-old Steven Spielberg as the biggest director of his generation and is today regarded as one of the greatest American films. Shaw's Quint steals the film and screenwriter Carl Gottlieb credits the actor with writing the character's chilling monologue about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in World War film's 50th anniversary has brought festivals, films showings and tributes across the in Orkney, many are remembering Robert Shaw as one of their own. For Bryce Wilson, it all comes back to that childhood in Stromness and the sea."Robert Shaw served his apprenticeship for Jaws by mucking about in a boat in the harbour. All the young folk were in dinghies mucking about," he says."So that's what we put it down to. It's where he learned to work his passage in Jaws".You can hear more on Robert Shaw's childhood in Orkney on The Sunday Show on BBC Radio Scotland from 10:00 on Sunday 22 June.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Jaws 'Actress Lorraine Gary Admits She Had a 'Mad Crush' on Costar Robert Shaw (Exclusive)
Lorraine Gary played Ellen Brody in the 1975 thriller Jaws In a new interview with PEOPLE for the film's 50th anniversary, the actress admits she had a "mad crush" on costar Robert Shaw Gary also remembers director Steven Spielberg having nerves while helming his first big filmEllen Brody may have been married to the police chief in Jaws, but in real life, she was much more interested in Quint. "I had a mad crush on Robert Shaw," Lorraine Gary, who played Ellen, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. Shaw portrayed Quint, the hardened hunter tasked with taking down the shark terrorizing Amity Island in the 1975 thriller. "Now for me, he was more than a gorgeous actor," she continues. "He was a playwright, he was an intellectual, he was a lovely, lovely human being. And yes, that was thrilling." Shaw died in 1978 at the age of 51 of a heart attack, three years after the release of Jaws. "We only had three days together in the Vineyard, and that's when I began to know him," Gary recalls, referencing Matha's Vineyard, where the film was primarily shot. "But when we came back to California and the film was still shooting at Universal, we had dinner first at a restaurant with Robert." "My son Billy opened the door and let him in, and Robert said, 'Hello, poxy!' In other words, 'You've got chicken pox.' And [Billy] at the point had no fever, no spots, nothing. But having had so many kids, he recognized the symptoms of someone who was coming down with it." She adds, "He had, like, 12 children!" Gary, 88, retired from acting in 1979 after starring in Steven Spielberg's 1941. She reprised her role as Ellen once more for the final Jaws movie in 1987, Jaws: The Revenge. Jaws was the first Spielberg movie Gary starred in. Her husband, Sid Sheinberg, the head of Universal at the time, is credited with discovering the fledgling director. Gary recalls her husband first told her Universal was producing Jaws, and her agent put her up for the role with no audition. "Steven knew my work, and he liked my work and that was it," she says. Jaws was famously shot on-location in the Atlantic Ocean and went 100 days over schedule, causing Spielberg to think his career as a filmmaker was "over." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "Steven's a very human guy, and of course he was nervous," Gary says. "I'm sure he was scared that he'd be pulled from this first big movie, but he was confident in his own work. What he wasn't confident in was the building of the shark, until it finally worked several times after failing and working on the ocean, which was an enormous risk and caused a lot of the delay." The mechanical shark frequently malfunctioned in the water, delaying the production process. But Gary adds that her husband was confident the risk would pay off. "It was Sid that decided to spend the extra money to bet on Steven's talent. He knew this was going to be a very big movie, and it was Sid's idea to open huge in 400 theaters, which was generally not done," she shares. "And he's the man you can blame for the summer blockbusters! I blame him for that too. I don't like most of those other movies, but I did like Jaws." For more on Jaws, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. Read the original article on People
CNN
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
Is ‘Jaws' what made us all fear sharks?
We hardly see the cartilaginous villain of 'Jaws' before it tears through a skinny-dipper, a dog, a little boy and an overconfident fisherman. It takes nearly two hours to finally watch the great white shark leap out of the water to swallow the gruff veteran Quint. Until then, we only really catch its dorsal fin before victims are ripped under the waves as the water around them turns the color of ketchup. 'Jaws' is credited with inventing the summer blockbuster. It inspired decades of creature features and suspenseful flicks. It kickstarted a whole subgenre of shark-centric horror (with diminishing returns). It also inflamed our fear of sharks as man-eating monsters, said Jennifer Martin, an environmental historian who teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 'I'm struggling to think of a parallel example of a film that so powerfully shaped our understanding of another creature,' she said. 'They were killing machines. They were not really creatures. They weren't playing an ecological role.' Fifty years on, 'Jaws' preys on our existing fears of the oceanic unknown. The film even briefly influenced the popularity of shark-killing tournaments after its release, Martin said. But it also enticed marine biologists and researchers to better understand the deranged shark at its center. Real white sharks are not as large as the demonic fish in 'Jaws,' nor do they hunt humans for bloodsport. But they are certainly intimidating, and they do occasionally bite the odd swimmer, sometimes fatally. 'Being bitten by a wild animal, and in particular one that lives in the ocean, was frightening for us already,' said Gregory Skomal, a marine biologist who has spent decades studying white sharks. 'That's really what I think 'Jaws' did — it put the fear in our face.' When 'Jaws' premiered to an invigorated public in June 1975, most of the research on sharks focused on preventing shark attacks, Skomal said. 'We knew it was big, it could swim fast and we knew it bit people,' he said. 'So those aspects of the film are fairly accurate, just exaggerated.' White sharks like the toothy menace of 'Jaws' already had a reputation for violence by the time the film premiered, Skomal said: There had been recorded attacks on fishermen and scuba divers in Australia and surfers in California. But sharks didn't evolve to feed on humans, Skomal said: They've existed for at least 400 million years — they predate dinosaurs by several hundred million. Sharks only encountered people in their waters in the last few thousand years, since we started exploring by sea. Though there's some disagreement, most shark researchers believe shark attacks are a case of mistaken identity: A shark may confuse a person for prey. They typically take a bite, realize their mistake and move on, Skomal said. Not so in 'Jaws.' The film's shark dispatches his victims with purpose, munching on some body parts while leaving a head or arm as a warning to any who dare swim in his waters. 'That's one of the reasons the film is so powerful,' Martin said. 'None of us want to look like food.' In the decades before 'Jaws,' white sharks weren't considered to be among the ocean's most fearsome predators. In the early 20th century, many sharks were thought of as 'garbage eaters,' Martin said: Coastal cities dumped their garbage in the ocean, and clever sharks learned to anticipate the barges' arrival. Sharks, city dwellers thought, were 'not very beautiful, not very commercially important,' Martin said. 'An animal that's in an in-between space — sort of a pest, sort of dangerous.' After some misbegotten attempts to fish sharks commercially, humans started to invade the waters where sharks hung out, and sharks graduated from pest to predator. With the popularization of maritime activities like scuba diving and surfing in the mid-20th century, people were spending more time underwater, which meant they were more likely to bump into a shark, Martin said. 'There were so many more humans in there,' said Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History. 'It was just a matter of time before people got nobbled.' Previously, shark tales were mostly traded between fishermen who encountered them on the high seas. Now, with more people exploring 'shark-infested waters,' run-ins with sharks were getting picked up by local newspapers. A particularly scary documentary, 1971's 'Blue Water, White Death,' which featured a tense confrontation with aggressive white sharks, also helped shape our view of sharks as creatures to be feared, Skomal said — but 'Jaws' cemented it. The glee with which Amity Island's fishermen hunt would-be killer sharks wasn't totally fictional, either. Shark fishing tourneys already existed in the US prior to the success of 'Jaws,' but the film brought new publicity to the competitions and the sport of hunting 'trophy sharks,' Martin said. 'The killing of these animals became sanctioned, approved of, as a result of the film,' Martin said. Peter Benchley, who wrote the 1974 novel upon which the film was based, expressed some regret that some audiences viewed sharks as man-eating monsters because of 'Jaws,' a work of pure, pulpy fiction. ''Jaws,' the movie particularly, sparked a spurt of macho madness,' he told southwest Florida's News-Press in 2005. 'People were running around saying, 'Hey, let's slaughter sharks.'' Benchley later spent many years steeped in shark advocacy. Most contemporary audiences left 'Jaws' cheering for Chief Brody after he successfully exploded the monstrous shark (and overcame his fear of the open ocean, to boot!). But even scaredy cats couldn't deny that big old shark was fascinating. 'They are charismatic,' Martin said. 'They command our attention through their size, the way their bodies are shaped, their morphology, their behavior. But the big part of it is their ability to turn us into food. We don't like to be reminded of it, but we are food in an ecosystem.' Our morbid fascination with white sharks' ability to kill us drove the success of 'Jaws' and, eventually, decades of 'Shark Week,' Discovery's annual TV marathon that always features programs about fatal run-ins with sharks. (Discovery and CNN share a parent company.) 'We're drawn to things that could potentially hurt us,' Skomal said. 'And sharks have that unique history of being an animal, to this day, that can still harm us. The probability is extremely rare, but it's an animal that's shrouded in the ocean environment. We're land animals.' In the intervening years between the advent of shark fishing tournaments and our present, when dozens of nonprofits exist solely to serve shark conservation efforts, researchers have gotten to know the creatures beyond their enormous teeth. 'The negative perception of sharks at the time — which was tapped into and exacerbated by 'Jaws' — I think has definitely changed into fascination, respect, a desire to conserve, a desire to interact with and protect,' Skomal said. Now that we better understand their role in our underwater ecosystems — at the top of the food chain, they maintain balance by keeping the species below them in check — we can better appreciate white sharks (while maintaining a healthy dose of caution in waters they occupy), Martin said. Appreciation for sharks is especially important since several sharks species' populations have been on the decline, largely due to overfishing — sharks are often accidentally caught and killed. So it's perfectly wonderful to love sharks and want to protect them, said Naylor — just don't get too comfortable around them. 'Sharks are becoming the new cuddly whales,' he said. 'They're not. They are predaceous fishes that are efficient. They don't target people, but in certain conditions when water is murky, they make mistakes.' Need reminding of the potential dangers sharks can pose? Just watch 'Jaws.'
