Immigrants Nudge Builders to Consider New Traditions

Foreign-born homebuyers are changing American design to accommodate their cultural traditions.

For instance, Centex Homes has largely abandoned models featuring a stairway leading up from the foyer that lines up exactly with the front door. That's because in many Asian communities, such an alignment is bad feng shui. It portends that luck will run out of the house.

Home builders in the South and West have begun building homes with more and smaller bedrooms than the traditional four-bedroom house to appeal to some Hispanic immigrant families in which many generations live under one roof.

In areas where there are many Hindu families, there is a demand for homes that reflect vastu shastra, an Indian design philosophy which suggests building homes facing east to soak up sunlight, while placing the kitchen in the center as the symbolic heart of the home.

Some Indian buyers strongly reject foreclosed homes because vastu shastra teaches that it's best to live in a home with positive energy, where the previous residents have been happy and prosperous.

Foreign-born residents make up a growing share of U.S. home owners at all income levels, but particularly first-time buyers, according to Zhu Xiao Di, a senior research analyst at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. Foreign-born residents make up about 16 percent of recent homebuyers in Maryland, 15 percent in Virginia, and 12 percent in the District, according to the center's analysis of U.S. Census data.