Ft Lauderdale Lifestyle Blog

This week's Real Estate stories

By MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:35 PM ET Apr 20, 2007

Much has been said about the trend of cocooning, the tendency for homeowners to spend more time at home. The trend has homebodies across the country enhancing their living spaces -- and not only the ones under the main roof.

Outdoor rooms are gaining in popularity as places to cook, entertain and relax. And these rooms aren't only for temperate climates. Warming elements allow rooms to be used three and four seasons out of the year in colder parts of the country.

According to 2005 research from the Propane Education & Research Council, 35% of homeowners had a finished outdoor room and 34% planned to design and purchase one by the following spring. Last year was a big year for sales of grills, one of the centerpieces of an outdoor room: More than 17 million grills were shipped in 2006, a 15% increase compared with 2005. There were more grills shipped in 2006 than any year since 1985.

Read more about the trend of outdoor living in this week's real estate pages. Also read about the increasing popularity of sustainable landscaping and see if your city made the top 10 list of most popular places to live in Relocate-America.com's annual survey.

If you're one of the lucky ones with a nicely furnished outdoor room - and if the weekend forecast for your area looks as good as Chicago's does -- make sure you don't stay glued to your computer for too long. Unless you're a laptop user, that is.