Smart Home Products Are U.S. Consumers’ Favorite Tech Trend—But Many Feel Left Out Because of High Prices, New Survey Shows

Smart home technology is all the rage, with more U.S. consumers saying they are more “excited” about smart home products than artificial intelligence, 5G, or the metaverse. But many consumers still can’t afford to buy these products—creating an opportunity for multifamily housing owners and operators to fulfill this need by making them more widely available to apartment dwellers.

The 2023 Quext Survey: Smart Technology Trends was conducted for Quext, a leading technology company for the multifamily industry, by the third-party survey platform Pollfish. Key findings include:

• Respondents were asked which new technologies they were most excited about. The top choice was “smart home devices” (58%), followed by “artificial intelligence” (51%), “5G cellular technology” (45%), “green/eco-friendly technologies” (32%), “robotics” (22%), and the “metaverse” (20%)
• Among smart home products, smart speakers like Amazon Alexa were the most popular category, with 57% of respondents saying they currently have one in their residence. Most categories, however, such as smart thermostats and smart kitchen appliances, were used by fewer than a third of respondents. For less-affluent respondents ($50,000 annual household income and below), adoption rates plummeted.
• Apartment dwellers in the survey sample were asked whether smart home technologies should be a “luxury” or “standard” feature in multifamily housing. While most higher-income respondents ($125,000+ annual household income) said it should be a luxury feature, more respondents overall believed it should be standard.
• Among high-income apartment dwellers ($150,000+ annual household income), 27% cited smart home products as their most important amenity, topping other perks like covered parking and gated entry. Among less-affluent apartment dwellers ($50,000 annual income and below), only 9% cited smart home products, likely due to their relative scarcity in more affordable multifamily housing.