In the not-to-distant future -- circa 2025 or so -- kitchens in new homes may be little more than a table that displays recipes and menus, cooks food, warms drinks, and charges mobile devices. IKEA calls this concept the Table for Living.

Sony, on the other hand, has a different take. The electronics giant thinks tomorrow’s kitchen will be somewhat more elaborate, with robotic arms dropping down to chop vegetables, cook your food and then deliver it to the table.

But those concepts are far down the road. After all, six years is an eternity in the housing business. What you will be seeing next spring, if not this fall, are kitchens and baths with extra windows for more natural light, splashes of color, and a lot of mix-and-match styles, according to the latest research from the Meyers Group and MetroStudy.

The two major advisory firms based their findings on responses from a diverse group of 28,000 consumers, from singles to mature families, in all income ranges.

Some people don’t see much value in consumer preference surveys like this one. They view it as pie-in-the-sky data, and say only when homebuyers put their money where their mouths are will the truth be told. Perhaps so. But like it or not, builders use these studies to design their newest models. And high design is important, to both builders and buyers.

Indeed, design is second only to location when it comes to the reason people move, according to these respondents. It’s even more important than price, the size of the house or the quality of the local schools. And as far as builders are concerned, kitchens and bathrooms are high-value design areas.

“That’s where people live,” says Mollie Carmichael, a principal in the Meyers firm. “It’s where their families gather.”

As she related it in a recent webinar, the study suggests two major trends ahead for kitchens: One, which has been going on for some time now, is a shift to a more modern look, especially in higher-end houses. The other is “a huge trend towards more light,” which makes kitchens not only feel larger but also feel better.

“Light matters,” said Carmichael, who has also worked for giant builders Lennar and Pulte. “It makes everything feel bigger.”

That’s especially true when it is accompanied by better storage, which is another item for which would-be buyers are hunting. And builders should be going to great lengths to give it to them. “Well-planned storage can make a 2,000 square-foot space seem like 2,500,” Carmichael said.

Look for above-the-counter shelving and cabinetry you can pull down and pop back up, and serving centers in the kitchen instead of the dining room. Another possibility: slimmer, possibly longer, kitchen islands that don’t take up as much space but are just as functional. “It will feel more like entertainment space and less like utilitarian space,” she said.

Also look for more color in the kitchen. White is still the dominant cabinet color, and Carmichael believes it will remain so. But black accents “will be everywhere,” perhaps on window frames to start with, but branching out from there.

You might also see builders experimenting with three white walls and a brighter, bolder color on the fourth wall, or maybe darker, contrasting kitchen islands. Anything that adds depth.

Colorful appliances -- bright red or heather green, for example -- aren’t new, but they’ve become “a bigger phenomenon” than most housing pros thought they would, she said. “They add personality to a place that should have personality. It’s eclectic, it’s fun.”

In smaller houses, where space is at a premium, homebuyers might also see smaller appliances that are just as attractive and functional as their larger brethren. Carmichael called them “right-sized appliances,” and said they aren’t just for apartments anymore. “They allow you to get more life out of your home. There’s more room for entertainment.”

In bathrooms, meanwhile, the research shows that people still favor tubs and showers in their main baths. And 2 out of 5 prefer freestanding tubs, even when they are an “extra” not included in the base price. Tiled shower floors instead of pans are hot, too, as are zero-threshold entries, dual showerheads and, in some cases, no shower doors.

Finally, laundry room suites are continuing to gain importance. They’re growing in size because a third of respondents want a mudroom or drop zone for bags and packages. And 3 out of 5 are willing to pay extra for built-in pet spaces, such as a dog-washing zone.

Others want a small office, and almost all mentioned a need for a space to recharge their electronic devices -- perhaps tucked away in a drawer for a cleaner look .

Houses listed for sale on a Thursday tend to sell more quickly, and at higher prices, than those listed on any other day of the week, research shows. But what’s the best time of day to show a house?

Obviously, any time a would-be buyer wants to see your place is the “best” time to show it. If you are not willing to drop everything at a moment’s notice, your potential buyers are just as likely to move on to the competition -- perhaps never to return when it is more convenient for you.

“Show a home when the buyer wants to see it,” recommends broker Scott Godzyk of Manchester, New Hampshire. “Some buyers work nights; others, days. Some work weekends, and on and on. So when a buyer has free time, when a buyer likes your home enough to want to see it, I say let him see it.”

Godzyk offered this advice during a recent discussion on the ActiveRain real estate site. It seems he had just turned down a listing from a woman who only wanted to show her house an hour before sunset, so that she could turn on all the lights to create a better selling atmosphere.

Such a limitation hinders more than it helps, Godzyk said. Agent Larry Agranoff of Plainview, New York, agreed: “With limited showing hours, limited success.”

But more specific suggestions on the ideal time to show a house varied widely. For example, agent Bill Roberts of Oceanside, California, prefers 2 p.m. Why? “No neighbors at home, the sun is up, the kids are still in school,” he said.

Agent Kathleen Daniels of San Jose, California, likes the daytime, too, as does home stager Sharon Tara of New Hampshire.

“Showing homes in the dark is not a bright idea,” Daniels said.

“Nice, natural sunlight is the best light to show the home,” agreed Tara.

Still, sellers need to be ready anytime the phone rings. “If the seller won’t accommodate a showing,” reiterated Maryland agent Melissa Spittel, “it decreases the chance of an offer.”

While you may not have a choice on when to show your house, you do have a choice of when to list it. And on that score, research from Redfin shows that places listed on Thursday sold for an average of $3,000 more than those listed on Monday. In fact, Monday was found to be the worst day of the week to enter listings into the multiple listing service.

For its analysis, the technology-based realty chain pored over more than 5 million homes listed and sold in 2017 and 2018.

In addition to commanding higher prices, Thursday-listed houses also sold five days faster than those listed on Sunday. Houses listed on Sunday took the longest to sell, Redfin found.

When you think about it, this makes perfect sense: A Thursday listing pops up just as potential customers are planning their weekends, when the majority of house-hunting happens. Wait till Friday, and plans might already have been made. List earlier in the week, and you risk your listing being eclipsed by fresher ones later on. Thursday is the sweet spot.

“Psychologists have found that people tend to best remember the last information they saw,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather pointed out. “If you list on a Thursday, buyers will be more likely to see your listing ... right before they go out and tour over the weekend.”

Homes listed on Sunday, meanwhile, tend to take the longest to sell, largely because buyers wait until the next weekend to restart their home search.

Looking at this another way, Thursday listings sold for about 0.74% more, relative to their listing prices, than those listed on Monday. (Remember, the study period was a time when sellers in many markets were fielding multiple offers.)

Finally, astute readers may have noticed there has been no mention here about the best month or date of the year to buy a house. The omission is purposeful, because studies that purport to show that a certain month or date is best are not really accurate.

Most such surveys look at the month sales contracts close, not the month in which they originated. A sale may not close for a month or two after the initial contract is signed. Consequently, the month the deal closes is relatively meaningless. Ditto for the date.

A case in point: ATTOM Data Solutions recently reported that the five best days to sell a home -- that is, the days that command the largest premiums above the seller’s asking price -- are in May and June. But a closer look at the study’s methodology reveals that the data comes from the dates the deeds are signed over to the buyer. And that takes place at closing -- weeks, and sometimes months, after contracts are signed.

Over the last decade, homebuilders have all but conceded the first-time buyer market to the resale sector. But evidence is mounting that builders are trying to get back into the game.

For one thing, they’re still building monster houses. Last year, three out of every 10 new houses were at least 3,000 square feet, and of those, 10 percent were at least 4,000 square feet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Indeed, the average size of new houses “remains elevated,” said Rose Quint, an economist at the National Association of Home Builders. The average size of all completed single-family dwellings in 2018 was 2,588 square feet, the Census Bureau reported.

But that figure is on a downward trajectory. In 2017, the average size was 2,631 square feet.

The increase in size over the last decade, and now the small decline, are both consistent with historical norms, points out NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.

“Typical new-home sizes fall prior to and during a recession, as homebuyers tighten budgets, and then rise as high-end buyers ... return to the market in relatively greater proportions,” Dietz says.

The pattern was exacerbated during the current business cycle because of the weaker market at the lower end of the price spectrum, as well as such supply-side constraints as labor shortages, more expensive building materials and a dearth of inexpensive building sites.

Builders still face some of those constraints, but the costs of many building materials -- lumber, drywall and concrete -- are heading down. And NAHB economists believe that their members will be adding more entry-level houses to their product lines.

In some cases, builders will be pruning square footage to hold down costs. But the mix is changing.

For one thing, townhouses are growing in popularity: Some 69,000 townhomes were sold last year, the most since 85,000 changed hands in 2007.

These attached single-family houses, which come in rows, are usually smaller than their stand-alone counterparts, Quint points out. They average about 2,000 square feet, and as such, says Dietz, they are the perfect jumping-off point for young buyers who want to transition from renters to homeowners. They’re particularly appealing for entry-level buyers who want more space but can’t afford those larger, detached houses, and they’re popular with builders in metro areas and older suburbs where land is scarce and expensive.

No wonder, then, that the townhouse sector is growing faster than any other. Builders started work on some 120,000 townhouses last year: a 15% jump in production over 2017.

But some builders are going smaller yet. Just outside of Denver, for example, KB Home just opened sales at Homestead Hills Villas, a community of 100 “paired” units once called duplexes. The units will share a common wall, and will range in size from roughly 1,400 to 1,900 square feet.

In Boulder, Colorado, the DTJ Design architectural firm has come up with a plan for clusters of what look like detached single-family homes that are actually connected to their neighbors by their garages. The 1,220-square-foot units can be arranged in all kinds of configurations.

Elsewhere, “micro-product” is capturing some attention, says John Hunt of MarketNsight, an Atlanta advisory firm. Hunt says that 650 people are on the mailing list for the 40 small houses in an East Point, Georgia, development. The houses will range in size from 500 to 1,000 square feet, with prices starting in the high $100,000s. And in Birmingham, Alabama, the Franklin condo conversion will have 14 units, including 500-square-foot studios staring at $159,000.

“We are beginning to see new cutting-edge for-sale product breaking onto the scene” in the 19 Southeast cities his firm serves, Hunt reports -- “product at square footages we have never seen, presented in new ways.”

As long as smaller houses are located in their preferred locations -- close to restaurants, employment centers and public transportation -- millennials are willing to pay more, says Hunt: “For many of today’s potential new-home buyers, experience and location trump square footage.”

And the prices may not be any higher than the rents they are paying now. At another Atlanta property, for instance, a mortgage on a proposed project of stacked condos would run $750 for principal and interest. Even when you add in property taxes and insurance, that’s likely much less than the $1,600 rents being paid nearby for a 560-square-foot apartment.

“Millennials are willing to live in, and potentially buy, small spaces in their target areas,” Hunt believes. And not just them: Baby boomers moving down the housing ladder will be vying for the same units, he says. “Their kids are gone, retirement is around the corner and they want to live where the action is.”

Meanwhile, lot sizes are also shrinking. About a third of all building lots last year were under a median 7,800 square feet -- the most in the last decade, the Census Bureau reported. And just 20 percent of all building sites were 22,000 feet or more -- the least since ‘09.

The average lot size for the year was 4,172 square feet, prompting Quint to note that “there are a lot of outliers out there.”