In its latest study of homes for sale analyzing six years of kitchen pictures, AI company Restb.ai learned that white kitchens with islands are the market’s most sought-after, among other regional findings.
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Restb.ai, the artificial intelligence technology company from Spain, has led the charge in teaching the industry what it can learn from pictures of houses, inside and out.
Using computer vision, a form of AI, Restb.ai creates actionable insights through still photography analysis. When done at scale, what it learns becomes that much more valuable.
In a recent report on kitchen decor trends using six years of data (2019-2025) from active listings — amounting to millions of pictures — the company can tell real estate agents what sells and what doesn’t. It’s no longer a guessing game.
Restb.ai Chief Product Officer Nathan Brennan told Inman in an exclusive statement that putting hard data on a subjective trend would not have been possible without AI.
“Analyzing millions of kitchen photos within property listings 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 these insights in minutes.”
The company examined kitchen photos from five major markets: Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Miami and Los Angeles. It found some style choices are more universal than others, such as white cabinets, while other styles trend according to location.
Agents recommending a kitchen refresh for an outdated listing should suggest an island, the report found. Among new homes in the report, 73 percent had an open-concept kitchen tethered to an island. Thirty-eight percent of existing listings had one.
Shaker cabinets are highly popular, too, found in 86 percent of the new homes in the report.
Bucking the island trend were homes in Miami, where kitchens with peninsulas are more common. Chicago homesellers were split on cabinet color, with 41 percent going white when market-ready and 39 percent medium brown.
Such reports allow listing agents and their sellers to apply actual data to the resale value of a renovation, an often challenging issue to tackle because of the time and money they require.
“Whether it’s a Miami peninsula or a Denver island, tailoring design and marketing strategies to these nuances can give agents and other industry professionals a powerful advantage,” Brannen said.
Other beneficiaries of such data include carpenters, general contractors, interior designers and even home goods and hardware chains. Marketing campaigns can feature a region’s preferred kitchen color or cabinet style. Renovation specialists can confidently advertise kitchen projects that reflect the findings of Restb.ai’s study.
Other recent revelations from Restb.ai’s listing image reports include the relationship between publishing floor plans and a listing’s days on market. That study looked at a year’s worth of images across 10 markets, including major cities like Chicago, Phoenix and Houston.
Restb.ai supplies its technology to multiple listing services around the country or by direct relationship. In September 2024, its technology was available to more than 720,000 real estate agents in the U.S. and Canada.
The kitchen study will be available on Restb.ai’s blog beginning Jan. 15.
Email Craig Rowe
