There are two things people are commonly talking about in 2023: AI and the housing market. AI is booming with new tools rolling out every day while the housing market is volatile. So, our team decided to combine the two. We set out to test an AI generator to see what it would envision as a “typical home” in all 50 states and the 30 largest cities in the U.S.
In addition, we decided to pull the median home value in each state or city to provide a lens into what these homes may potentially cost if they were for sale in your neighborhood. Check out what technology has created and decide for yourself if you would live in your state’s “typical home.”
AI-generated Homes in All 50 States
Beginning with the most populous state in the country, AI created a home in California with a great deal of greenery and a grand staircase on the front of the property. If this “typical home” was listed for the state’s median cost of a home, it would cost nearly $800,000.
On the other end of the spectrum, in the least populous state, AI created a snowy landscape for a Wyoming home. With a large wraparound porch on the front, those views would be breathtaking first thing in the morning!
Heading to the nation’s capital, the Washington, D.C. home stands three stories tall and narrow, reminiscent of the rowhouse style that’s popular in neighborhoods like Capitol Hill. With more than 11,000 people per square mile, we were not surprised to see how close the neighboring home is depicted.
When designing for Arizona and Nevada, AI included historical architecture as it created a Spanish colonial-style home. Both houses have clay-tiled roofs which is common in the area, as the roofing has the ability to keep homes cool in high temperatures throughout the year.
A similar theme was shown in the Hawaii home design as AI depicted a plantation-style home, which became popular in the late 19th and 20th centuries when sugarcane and pineapple plantations were popular on the islands. Plantation-style homes typically have a spacious lanai, or porch, and large windows which let the cooling wind inside.
While each home’s style was slightly different, most homes were spacious with two stories and large, landscaped yards, painting the picture of idealistic homes in each state.
AI Imagines Homes in the 30 Largest U.S. Cities
While many of us picture Manhattan when we hear New York City, the city actually consists of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. AI painted a picture of a home style more common in the outer boroughs as it imagined a townhome with a gated entry to the building’s front steps.
Although the U.S. Census Bureau shows the median home value in the city is $660,700, Redfin shows the median listing price of townhomes in 2023 is $865,000. Of course, pricing depends on the borough in which the home is located. For example, a majority of townhomes for sale today in Manhattan are listed at $10 to $30 million, while townhomes in Staten Island are listed for closer to $800,000 to $900,000.
In Houston, TX, the generator created a beautiful brick house with a cobblestone-style design on the front. The house also has a lush green yard with a flower bed surrounding the front of the home.
To the southeast, AI created a colorful home for Jacksonville, FL. For anyone who has visited a beach town, these paint colors may seem familiar. It is believed that these bright colors are used in warmer climates to help reflect heat and keep homes cooler.
The generator also took the environment into consideration when designing these homes. The El Paso, TX, and Las Vegas, NV, homes both lack green yards. Instead, there are cacti outside the Texas home and palm trees around the Nevada home.
Conclusion
While many of the homes designed in this study are beautiful, you don’t need AI to create your dream home. Here at All Star Home, we can help you transform your current house from ordinary to extraordinary.
Though technology is advancing enough to create anything we can imagine, a human touch is still needed for many areas of our life. That’s why we create custom solutions to fit your home’s requirements and your personal preferences. Looking to upgrade your home? Turn to our team of experts to upgrade your home’s roofing, siding, or gutters.
Methodology
All images in this study were generated using Midjourney.
To generate images of “typical homes” across all 50 states, we used the following prompt:
“a typical, beautiful house in Nevada in 2023. Photorealistic, very realistic, life-like, sunny day, as if taken with a Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L lens at 1/4 sec, f/7.1 and ISO400”
Here’s that prompt broken down:
- “Photorealistic” and “life-like” gave us photo-like images that look very real at first glance. Without these terms, the images generated were more artistic and illustrative.
- “Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L lens at ¼ sec, f/7.1 and ISO400” is the camera and lens type, further telling the AI image generator that we wanted very realistic architectural images.
- “Sunny day” ensured the AI generator would provide images that were not impacted by the elements. It also provided a realistic view, as photos are typically taken of homes on sunny days when listing a house for sale.
Midjourney produces four images per prompt. Therefore, we had to decide how to fairly choose one image to represent each prompt. Here are the two criteria we used to choose each image, in order of importance:
- Most realistic looking: Typically, at least one of the results would have a glitch that would not make sense, like a bush on the roof or dimensions that did not match the front of the home.
- Simple surroundings: We consistently saw cars being added to the images. This included cars parked in the front yard and cars that would be several decades old in 2023.
