KB Home launches Apple HomeKit-enabled homes in 2 Silicon Valley communities

Dive Brief:

Los Angeles-based homebuilder KB Home has made a series of home automation features controllable through Apple’s HomeKit platform available to buyers in two of its new communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Residents at the Promenade at Communications Hill, in San Jose, and the Magnolia at Patterson Ranch, in Fremont, can use their iPhones, iPads or Apple Watches to monitor and control features including lighting, HVAC, window shades and security elements like door locks individually or as pre-set scenes, according to The Mercury News.
The app-controlled homes at the Promenade span 2,148 square feet to 2,178 square feet across three-story plans. They are priced from the low $900,000s.

Dive Insight:

The announcement by KB Home comes amid a growing trend in residential development seeing greater incorporation of smart technology to meet consumer demand. In an annual survey of builders released by the Consumer Electronics Association last year, three in 10 respondents said they could increase their margins by pre-wiring homes for features like home theaters and monitored security. The same number of builders reported that adding home tech boosted their sales in 2014.

Within the category of home tech are tools and other features designed specifically to manage energy consumption. Adoption of that technology is building traction in residential construction, particularly in California, where consumers seek alternative power sources and pockets of tech-savvy, younger buyers such as those in the San Francisco Bay Area exhibit a willingness to buy in.

A recent analysis by real estate listing website Zillow of the percentage of home listing in the 100-largest U.S. cities by carbon footprint featuring language about energy efficiency counted five metros in California in the top five. San Jose topped the list, with the fifth-largest carbon footprint and nearly one-quarter of its home listings on Zillow including terminology describing energy efficiency.

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