When you think of an elevator inside a private residence, you probably imagine some mansion owned by a celebrity, installed just because they didn’t want to carry heavy items up and down their stairs. However, this is becoming less of a case.
Times change when it comes to technology. Remember when the HD TV seemed like a luxury item? Or the cell phone? As time goes on, certain items become more affordable to the general public and less of an item that is only accessible by the rich and famous.
Examples of Luxury Converting to Essentials
To give you a more detailed example, in 1955, a small black and white TV could cost you around $100, which doesn’t seem like a lot until you remember inflation. Adjusted for inflation, you’re paying over $900 for a TV that had a fraction of uses as a modern TV has. Nowadays, you can get a giant 4K with $900.
Then there’s the dishwasher. In the 1970s, a dishwasher could cost you around $1,500 when you adjust for inflation. Nowadays, you can get a good one for a fraction of that price. These are including in any basic apartment building, and many people can’t leave without it.
Let’s look at the microwave. It’s a staple of any home, poor or rich. You can buy a cheap microwave for around $30, and it gets the job done. In the 1950s, the first commercial microwave was in the market. How much did it cost? Adjusted for inflation, you could be paying as much as $20,000 for one. Imagine paying the price of a car just so you can reheat some leftovers! Find out how much a residential elevator cost now a days.
Finally, we have the home computer. The Commodore 64 could cost you around $1,500 in today’s money. The 64 in the title is how much RAM it had, which was 64 KB. Nowadays, you need at least 4GB of RAM just to run Windows 10 well.
The Future is now
The point is, technology marches on. We’ll soon see 3D printing and alternative fueled cars for less and less too. Same with home elevators, which have more than just a use of convenience. Home elevators are seen as useful tool for the disabled.
About 50 million Americans are living with some kind of disability. Those who find stairs physically taxing, and live in a home that has stairs, can benefit from an elevator installed in their homes. Even if the person does not have a physical disability, there are other disabilities that a home elevator can help. For example, if someone is prone to fainting or seizures, the last thing they want is to have an episode while walking on some stairs, where they can tumble down or cause serious injury.
Then there’s the elderly. Even if an elderly person is physically fit for their age, one fall down the stairs can put them out for a while. A home elevator is safe for all those situations. Not only that, these elevators can be installed with a phone line or an emergency button in case someone needs assistance.
The prices of home elevators will vary. It’ll depend on your home, how many floors you have, the size of the elevator and the type, and the list goes on. But for only one stop, and for a cheaper model, you can get one installed for an average of $10,000. For many, this is the price of a used car, and can be paid off in time.
Plus, home elevators have other benefits. They’re tax deductible if you’re using it for medical expenses. If you’re planning on reselling your home, they can add value to your house and you can probably get most of the money you spent on the elevator back.
And the price of one just keeps going down. We’re not fortunetellers, so we can’t tell you what the home of the future will bring us. But we can make a safe bet that in the future, home elevators will be more common than you think, being used by the disabled. Even those who just want one for convenience won’t have to be rich to install one.
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