In its latest real estate survey analyzing six years of kitchen images, AI firm Restb.ai found that white kitchens with islands are the most sought after by the market, among other regional findings.
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Restb.ai, a Spanish artificial intelligence company, has taken the lead in teaching the industry what it can learn from photos of houses, inside and out.
Using computer vision, a type of AI, Restb.ai creates actionable insights through the analysis of still images. When done at scale, what it learns becomes more valuable.
In the latest report on kitchen decoration trends using six years of data (2019-2025) from active listings – up to millions of photos – the company can tell real estate agents what is selling and what is not. It’s no longer a guessing game.
Restb.ai Chief Product Officer Nathan Brennan told Inman in an exclusive statement that putting hard data into independent practice would not be possible without AI.
“Analyzing millions of photos of kitchens within an inventory to identify different layouts, colors, and styles would take tens of thousands of hours of human effort,” Brannen said. “With computer vision, we can unlock this information in minutes.”
The company examined kitchen photos from five major markets: Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Miami and Los Angeles. It found that some style choices are more universal than others, such as white cabinets, while other styles are regionally specific.
Agents recommending kitchen renovations on outdated listings should lift the island, the report found. Among the new homes in the report, 73 percent have an open-concept kitchen tied to an island. Thirty-eight percent of existing listings have one.
Shaker cabinets are popular, too, found in 86 percent of new homes in the report.
Completing the island trend were Miami homes, where kitchens with peninsulas are very common. Chicago home sellers are divided by cabinet color, with 41 percent white when ready for the market and 39 percent medium brown.
Such reports allow listing agents and their sellers to use real data on resale value for repairs, which is often a challenging problem to fix due to the time and money it takes.
“Whether it’s a Miami peninsula or a Denver island, exploring design and marketing strategies in these nuances can give agents and other industry professionals a powerful advantage,” Brannen said.
Other beneficiaries of that data include carpenters, general contractors, interior designers and even home goods and hardware chains. Marketing campaigns can feature a popular regional kitchen color or cabinet style. Renovators can confidently advertise kitchen projects that reflect Restb.ai’s research findings.
Some recent revelations from Restb.ai’s listing image reports include the relationship between publishing floor plans and listing dates on the market. That study looked at year-over-year figures for all 10 markets, including major cities like Chicago, Phoenix and Houston.
Restb.ai offers its expertise to many listing services across the country or through direct partnerships. By September 2024, its technology was available to more than 720,000 real estate agents in the US and Canada.
Kitchen research will be available on the Restb.ai blog starting Jan. 15.
Email Craig Rowe
