Best Buy achieves a score of 797 on a 1,000-point scale and performs particularly well in the installation service and delivery service factors. Following Best Buy in the rankings is hhgregg (794), which performs particularly well in the sales staff and price factors. Lowe's (792) follows hhgregg in the rankings and performs particularly well in the store facility and merchandise factors.

"Competition has intensified among appliance retailers, particularly in terms of price," said Dale Haines, senior director of the real estate and construction practice at J.D. Power and Associates. "In the past year, appliance retailers have renewed their emphasis on providing superior service-from the sales process through delivery and installation-to differentiate themselves from the competition. By providing additional product knowledge and customer service training to their staff, some major appliance retailers have increased customer satisfaction."

Beginning late this fall, the program authorizes rebates of $50 to $200 for purchases of high-efficiency household appliances. The money is part of the broader economic stimulus bill passed earlier this year. Program details will vary by state, and the Energy Dept. has set a deadline of Oct. 15 for states to file formal applications. The Energy Dept. expects the bulk of the $300 million to be awarded by the end of November. (Unlike the clunkers auto program, consumers won't have to trade in their old appliances.)

"These rebates will help families make the transition to more efficient appliances, making purchases that will directly stimulate the economy," Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement announcing the plan. Only appliances covered by the Energy Star seal will qualify. In 2008, about 55% of newly produced major household appliances met those standards, which are set by the Energy Dept. and Environmental Protection Agency.

"Shopping trips had seen a significant decline back when gasoline prices were at record high levels" Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart’s head of U.S. stores, said in a Feb. 26 interview. "Now we're seeing a reversal of that."

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, reported today that sales at U.S. stores open at least a year increased 5.1 percent in February, better than its prediction for 1 percent to 3 percent growth in the three months ending May 1. An increase in customer traffic drove the gains, Wal-Mart said in a statement.

Consumers' biggest worry has shifted from gasoline prices, which have tumbled from a record in July, to "the fear of losing their jobs and being able to make payments on mortgages and credit-card balances," Castro-Wright said.

Shoppers want to save money by eating in and are buying groceries, small appliances, cookware and "anything that has to do with the home," he said last week from his office in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is based.

Just in time for allergy season, LG Electronics has introduced a washer/dryer combination that removes up to 95 percent of allergens. The product, called the LG SteamWasher and Dryer Combo with Allergiene Cycle, has a compact design that is meant to fit in closets.

The company had previously released appliances that had been certified as asthma-and-allergy friendly, but the new product is LG's first such product that is both a washer and dryer. The initiative, LG says, is meant to cater to the 70 percent of households affected by asthma or allergies in the U.S.

"Our new Allergiene steam combo extends this industry-first benefit to more consumers who need to reduce allergens in their washable fabrics in order to be better prepared this allergy season," the vice president of marketing for LG's U.S. appliances group, John Weinstock, said in a statement. The product, with a white finish, is available now at a suggested retail price of $1,999.

Second kitchens tend to fall into three categories: those still-rare high-end restaurant-style kitchens for personal chefs and caterers, lower-cost functional kitchens for home cooking too messy or smoky for the luxury show kitchen seen by guests, and small auxiliary kitchens used primarily for religious holidays or for entertaining.

"This is the new thing," says John Kean, a luxury home builder based in Cold Spring Harbor. "We really didn't get much call for it until the last few years."

His clients want restaurant-style kitchens in their huge vacation homes in the Hamptons, Palm Beach, Fla., and Vail, Colo., for their personal chefs and caterers to use. "Now we're starting to see it more on the North Shore of Long Island," he adds. "Some clients suggest it to us, and others, a light bulb goes off in their heads when we suggest it to them."

Shawn Elliott, broker-owner of Woodbury-based Shawn Elliott Luxury Homes, says big elaborate butler's pantries (which may have every appliance but a stove) and separate kitchens become more common the closer the home's value is to $5 million-plus. But in any case, whether and how it's done depends on local rules and regulations.

"The plans have to be approved; there's no hiding a second kitchen," he says. "But it definitely can be done. Where there's a will, there's a way."

Local builders say many of the homeowners opting for a basement or underground garage are transplanted Northerners accustomed to having a subterranean space.

"As land gets more expensive, you have to either give things up or try to find a different way," Mr. Moore said.

"It costs less to put part of your house underground than by buying another lot."

That's why Ed Abraham started putting underground garages in all his company's residential projects three years ago.

It adds about 10 percent to the cost, so a $400,000 house costs closer to $440,000.

"It gives them the ability to have at least a five-car garage," said Mr. Abraham, president of Park Cities Custom Builders. "All my houses have five-car garages; some have six. Plus, it gives them room in the basement to do like a media room."

The LBSI incorporates four "pillars" of value: consistently superior quality, exclusivity, a measure of enhanced social status, and a measure of the ability of a brand to make a customer "feel special". Seven point scale ratings are converted to a 0-100 scale. Another two highly critical metric features of the research are a rating by wealthy consumers as to the brand's worthiness of a price premium and a measure of erosion or enhancement as a luxury brand over the past 12 months.