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The Better Home Better Living House: Win America’s Home sweepstakes  began January 10, 2005. Details are available in the magazine and online at http://www.winamericashome.com
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Nearly 60,000 Americans responded to the magazine’s Better Home Better Living™ contest and survey, registering their current home improvement projects and future home-building aspirations.  Based on these findings, Better Homes and Gardens will design and build the Better Home Better Living House which will be featured in the magazine and on its website throughout 2005. The project house and its contents, a $500,000 value, will be given away in a nationwide sweepstakes through the magazine’s website, www.WinAmericasHome.com

"Affordability and flexibility top America's wish list when it comes to their homes," says Karol DeWulf Nickell, Editor in Chief, Better Homes and Gardens.  "People are hungry for ideas that fit their budget and they want their home to work through all the changes their families go through.  Inside, they’re concentrating on kitchen improvements that can substantially increase their families’ everyday satisfaction.  Outside, they’re looking to add living space to their yard or garden. In our Better Home Better Living House, we’re combining these consumer needs in a completely integrated design that brings innovation to a whole new doable and affordable level."

Inspired by the first-hand, proprietary insights of the nearly 60,000 consumers who responded to the magazine’s home improvement contest and survey, Better Homes and Gardens editors, working with a select panel of leading home design experts, will literally “build” on readers’ suggestions – designing and constructing the Better Home Better Living House on a site in Vickery Village, located in Cumming, Georgia, just north of Atlanta.  The home will incorporate the five key trends identified by respondents as those which are paramount to the design and construction of their “ideal home,” –  affordability, flexibility, indoor/outdoor livability, innovation, and kitchen-centricity– trends which will shape the future of American homebuilding.
 

Key Trends
Affordability is especially important due to a major rise in housing costs over the past 10 years. The Better Home Better Living House will be affordable (under $120 per square foot) and will be scaled in size (less than 3,000 square feet) for most suburban lots. According to the survey: 

• The average home improvement project costs the homeowner $12,427. 
• DIY(do-it-yourself) is the most popular home improvement project with 86% of respondents working on their projects alone. 
• 57% of Americans “pay as they go” when asked how they finance a home improvement project.
• 60% agreed that working with a homebuilder or contractor is a smart investment.

• An enormous 68% of Americans are interested in shifting to a “work from home” lifestyle over the next five years which could significantly impact the homebuilding and remodeling industry.
• People currently only stay in a home for 3-5 years due to expanding family, demonstrating a need for homes that can grow with families.
• 69% completed a major remodeling project within the past five years, and 42% plan to do so in the next five years, indicating that Americans are constantly changing their homes.

• Building a major garden or landscaping project is the second most popular home improvement choice among respondents asked what they would do with $20,000.
• The # 1 reason that Americans give for remaining in an existing home is “watching something grow that I have planted,” such as a tree or garden.
• 88% of survey respondents said that “a neighborhood that’s walkable” is important to them – more so, in fact, than spacious rooms or acreage.
• 92% said that “looking great from the curb” is an important quality in their selection of a home.

• 60% said they like and use technology in their homes – including advanced home entertainment equipment, hi-speed computer access, home computer network, security system and smart appliances.
• The home will incorporate innovative Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs), which allow for more efficient building and less waste. 

• The kitchen was the #1 room respondents added onto, remodeled or redecorated.
• When asked which room most needed updating, more respondents answered “kitchen” than any other single room in the house, indicating it is the room that gets the most use – it’s certainly the one room that everyone in the household depends upon equally.

About The Better Home Better Living Program
The Better Home Better Living Program includes: a six-part editorial series starting with the February 2005 issue; in-store “how-to” clinics starting in February 2005 at The Home Depot’s 1,700 retail stores nationwide; an original 10-part television series currently entitled, “Building America’s Home”  filmed on location and premiering on the Discovery Home Channel in the fall 2005; a dedicated mini-site at http://www.WinAmericasHome.com where consumers enter to win every month for their chance to win a variety of monthly prizes including the Grand Prize. In February, enter to win a key which may unlock the door, a trip to Atlanta for the grand finale event, a $500 gift card from The Home Depot and a year supply of Behr paint for your home.

About Better Homes and Gardens and Meredith Corporation
Better Homes and Gardens magazine, with a circulation of 7.6 million and a readership of 38.2 million, is America’s foremost home and family authority.  Better Homes and Gardens is dedicated to the most important people and most important place in a person’s life—family and home. Better Homes and Gardens was named # 1 in Adweek’s “The Hit List” for the second year in a row. 
Meredith Corporation (NYSE:MDP) is one of the nation's leading media and marketing companies with businesses centering on magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing, and interactive media.  The Meredith Publishing Group, the country's foremost home and family authority, features 17 magazine brands, including Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal and American Baby, and approximately 150 special interest publications.  Meredith (www.meredith.com) owns 13 television stations - including properties in top 25 markets such as Atlanta, Phoenix and Portland.

Meredith has nearly 300 books in print and has established marketing relationships with some of America's leading companies, including The Home Depot, DaimlerChrysler, and Carnival Cruise Lines.  Meredith's consumer database, which contains more than 75 million names, is the largest domestic database among media companies and enables magazine and television advertisers to precisely target marketing campaigns.  Additionally, Meredith has an extensive Internet presence, including 25 Web sites, and strategic alliances with leading Internet destinations.
 

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