The tentacles of feminism have reached the real estate lingo. It is no longer politically correct nowadays to call the master bedroom of the house, supposedly the core of the house, as the "Master", or so a survey found out.
Michael Neibauer of Business Journals conducted a survey among ten major construction firms in the Washington area and found out that the word "Master Bedroom" or the "Master suite" is slowly fading away in the property word world.
Apparently, "the master bedroom" is too sexist a word to be used in a world where gender equity is taken very seriously. According to Neibauer's survey, the word "Master" has "connotation problems" that incline towards the male gender. It also sounds "racist" as in "the slave master". "Owners bedroom" or "owners suite" is a lot less sexist and racist.
In most listing records, realtors are replacing the grand word with "Owner's suite" or "owner's bedroom" or in some cases adding a French touch to the existing word and making it "the mastre bedroom".
"The terminology has more of an upscale tone to it, particularly in some of the really large homes that truly have a large bedroom, sitting area, enormous walk-in closets, and lavish bathrooms. Owner Suite conveys a sense of being distinguished, having 'made it' or 'arrived' rather than the everyday 'Master Bedroom"," Brian Block, managing broker at McLean's RE/Max Allegiance, said to the Business Journal.
Dynamics of language are ever changing and evolve through the years. Same is the case with words in the real estate dictionary.
The real estate lingo has its own place in the dictionary. Especially post recession when the real estate industry resurged and added extensively to the economic growth of the U.S.; new words were coined to describe its effect on the market and determine the status of a property as well.
However, any kind of change takes time to seep into the world and take over. Similarly, the "Master Bedroom" is still used extensively for listings and will take time to be replaced.
Not all real estate terms mean what they actually state. In a feature on Huffington Post, some of the most exaggerated listing terms have been explained. For example, while "Gourmet Kitchen" probably means a large kitchen that just has an island and some extra appliances, "Near Transportation" probably means the neighborhood is very noisy and "Charming" or "Cozy" indicates that the place is really small.
Check out some post-recession real estate lingo that made its way into the property dictionary, here.
