10 Top Trends in Homeowner Readiness to Spend on Home Improvement Projects in 2025 and 2026

Home­own­ers in the Unit­ed States are cur­rent­ly in a sen­si­tive posi­tion as 2025 comes to a close and they pre­pare for the upcom­ing year. They face sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns over per­son­al finances and ris­ing costs, although there is less wor­ry about broad­er trends, such as infla­tion, unem­ploy­ment, and the polit­i­cal envi­ron­ment, based on our research.Homeowners show a cau­tious­ly engaged mind­set. Strong intent per­sists with planned activ­i­ty con­cen­trat­ed in main­te­nance projects.

What Trends are Driving Homeowner Readiness in the Home Improvement Industry?

Tighter bud­gets, ris­ing remod­el­ing costs, and stag­nat­ed incomes are influ­enc­ing home­own­er readi­ness with­in the home improve­ment indus­try in 2025, with many hes­i­tant to take on large, high-end remod­els and ren­o­va­tions at the moment and many choos­ing small­er DIY projects instead.Here is a look at some of the top home improve­ment trends that are cur­rent­ly shap­ing home­own­ers’ per­spec­tives on home improve­ment and are like­ly to have an impact in 2026:

1. Home Improvement Products Market Shows Steady Growth

Based on data from HIRI’s Q2 2025 U.S. Home Improve­ment Prod­ucts Mar­ket Fore­cast, spend­ing in the home improve­ment prod­ucts mar­ket is expect­ed to increase 2.5% in 2025, with an aver­age 4% annu­al growth rate from 2026 – 2029, reach­ing rough­ly $688 bil­lion by that year. From a home­own­er per­spec­tive, the DIY prod­ucts mar­ket saw a mod­est increase in 2024 and is expect­ed to increase 1.3% in 2025. Growth is pro­ject­ed to be stronger in the con­sumer mar­ket in the upcom­ing year. The fastest-grow­ing mar­kets for home­own­er spend­ing are Alas­ka, Wash­ing­ton, the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, Col­orado, and North Dakota.

We always wit­ness sea­son­al cycles for sales in build­ing mate­ri­als, gar­den equip­ment, and sup­plies with more retail sales tak­ing place from April to Novem­ber. Advanced retail sales for build­ing mate­ri­als, gar­den equip­ment, and sup­plies deal­ers decreased in August, down 7% from July, accord­ing to HIRI’s Octo­ber Eco­nom­ic and Indus­try Update. Com­pared to the same peri­od last year, advanced retail sales are down about 5.7%.Additionally, HIRI’s Quar­ter­ly Home­own­er Project Activ­i­ty Track­er shows that while big-box retail­ers remain the dom­i­nant chan­nel for pur­chas­ing home improve­ment prod­ucts, local hard­ware stores gained notable trac­tion through­out 2025, with about one-third of DIY home­own­ers report­ing that they shopped for prod­ucts and mate­ri­als through this chan­nel dur­ing the third quar­ter, up from 21% in the same quar­ter last year.

2. Concern of Trade Policy and Tariffs has Eased

Trade pol­i­cy uncer­tain­ty has eased in recent months but remains ele­vat­ed in a his­tor­i­cal con­text. Trade pol­i­cy uncer­tain­ty tends to reduce invest­ment spend­ing in indus­tries heav­i­ly exposed to trade in input and out­put mar­kets. Amid ongo­ing pol­i­cy uncer­tain­ty, firms have ini­tial­ly man­aged increased costs by either deplet­ing pre-tar­iff inven­to­ries or absorb­ing mar­gin reduc­tions (or both). This has result­ed in a par­tial pass-through to con­sumer prices, but not at an alarm­ing rate. How­ev­er, the two lat­est CPI reports indi­cate that busi­ness­es are will­ing to pass the increased costs direct­ly to con­sumers, but per­haps in stages as they become more con­fi­dent about where tar­iff rates will ulti­mate­ly set­tle. We antic­i­pate this trend will con­tin­ue in the com­ing months and become more appar­ent in 2026 data.While recent atten­tion has cen­tered on tar­iffs’ impact on goods prices, ser­vices infla­tion remains the pri­ma­ry dri­ver of over­all infla­tion. As a gen­er­al trend, our out­look expects com­mod­i­ty prices will remain rel­a­tive­ly weak glob­al­ly into ear­ly 2026. In the U.S., sev­er­al com­modi­ties face high­er-than-usu­al pre­mi­ums com­pared with oth­er economies because of tar­iffs. How­ev­er, imports from some regions into the US remain com­pet­i­tive even with 50% tariffs.

3. Inflation, Unemployment, and Consumer Confidence Impact Economic Outlook

Oth­er impor­tant eco­nom­ic indi­ca­tors also pro­vide insight into where home­own­ers and house­holds cur­rent­ly stand finan­cial­ly. Unem­ploy­ment is high­er than 4%, and the num­ber of jobs added to the econ­o­my has been decreas­ing in the back half of 2025. This is part of a long-term trend, with sig­nif­i­cant­ly few­er jobs being cre­at­ed in the U.S. Addi­tion­al uncer­tain­ty stems from the country’s cur­rent pol­i­cy. This includes the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment lay­offs, many of which occurred ear­li­er this year. With many employ­ees still receiv­ing sev­er­ance, they will not be count­ed as unem­ployed until Octo­ber and will start to be reflect­ed in forth­com­ing datasets. A tougher stance on immi­gra­tion has severe­ly reduced bor­der cross­ings and increased depor­ta­tions, poten­tial­ly con­strain­ing labor sup­ply in sec­tors like con­struc­tion that rely on immi­grant workers.Throughout the year, con­sumer con­fi­dence has been notably low, based on the Con­sumer Con­fi­dence Index (CCI). In Sep­tem­ber, the CCI was down 5% from the same month last year. Con­sumer sen­ti­ment, as tracked by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan, has also remained low this year, and is cur­rent­ly at the low­est rate since July 2022.

4. Household Income Drives Home Improvement Spending

One pos­i­tive eco­nom­ic indi­ca­tor, as revealed in data from HIRI’s Eco­nom­ic and Indus­try Update from Octo­ber 2025, is that real dis­pos­able per­son­al income (RDPI) remained sta­ble in August, and year-over-year dis­pos­able income is also up near­ly 2% from August 2025. Yet while income inched upward, weak­er cash reserves and slow­er debt reduc­tion has rein­forced house­hold anx­i­ety. These pres­sures have been steer­ing pri­or­i­ties toward afford­abil­i­ty, small­er under­tak­ings, and deferred dis­cre­tionary spend­ing. Rel­a­tive to income, debt bal­ances are low­er than they were before the pan­dem­ic. Ris­ing auto loan and cred­it card delin­quen­cies have slowed, and the tran­si­tion rate for mort­gages, the largest share of house­hold debt, remains near its pre-pan­dem­ic lev­el. That said, delin­quen­cy rates for stu­dent loans are ris­ing quick­ly and remain ele­vat­ed for cred­it card and auto loans. There­fore, it bears watch­ing for signs that the added finan­cial strain is spilling over into oth­er cred­it prod­ucts as we head into 2026.

5. Housing Inventory Improves but Sales are Struggling

Activ­i­ty in the hous­ing mar­ket pro­vides impor­tant home improve­ment sta­tis­tics that give insight into what DIY home­own­ers are expe­ri­enc­ing and their will­ing­ness to under­take var­i­ous projects. In recent mem­o­ry, the lack of homes list­ed for sale has been one of the main sto­ry­lines in the US hous­ing mar­ket, but, that sto­ry has changed marked­ly in 2025. The active inven­to­ry of homes for sale is now above lev­els a year ear­li­er in near­ly all states and major metro areas, with total US inven­to­ry more than 20% high­er. Home sales, mean­while, are not keep­ing pace, exert­ing down­ward pres­sure on prices and giv­ing some lever­age to buy­ers. Addi­tion­al­ly, accord­ing to the Eco­nom­ic and Indus­try update, home­own­er­ship dipped slight­ly in Q2 2025. Com­pared to last year, home­own­er­ship has decreased 0.6%. All regions (North­east, Mid­west, South, and West) are down com­pared to last year.Builders have respond­ed by cut­ting prices and heav­i­ly pro­mot­ing incen­tives, like rate buy-downs, to keep com­plet­ed home inven­to­ry mov­ing. Home builders are pro­ject­ed to start 1.32 mil­lion homes in 2026. In 2026, home sales are expect­ed to con­tin­ue to be tem­pered due to the locked-in effect: with exist­ing home­own­ers with low-inter­est-rate mort­gages feel­ing stuck, and much of first-time home­buy­ers being priced out the mar­ket. The bright news is that over­all home sales are fore­cast­ed to bounce back up to 4.39 mil­lion in 2026 as homes become more afford­able due to low­er mort­gage rates and low­er real home prices from sup­ply-demand pressures.

6. Homeowners Prioritize Maintenance and Low-Risk Projects

In light of finan­cial strain and cool­ing opti­mism, DIY trends reveal that home­own­ers are focused on essen­tial main­te­nance and low­er-risk projects, under­scor­ing a retreat from dis­cre­tionary ambi­tion. Through­out 2024, home main­te­nance includ­ing rou­tine tasks and activ­i­ties to keep a home in good con­di­tion, were the most pop­u­lar types of home improve­ment projects com­plet­ed, and near­ly twice as pop­u­lar as home ren­o­va­tions across all four quar­ters. Bud­gets, labor costs, and over­runs have been rein­forc­ing cost as the cen­tral bar­ri­er to these shifts in home improve­ment behav­iors. Moti­va­tions also cen­ter on income gains, eco­nom­ic con­di­tions, and incen­tives, but afford­abil­i­ty is the dom­i­nant factor.

7. Pro Engagement is Changing, with Selective Hiring

Pro­fes­sion­al con­trac­tors and trades­peo­ple have avail­abil­i­ty right now. The num­ber of con­struc­tion jobs decreased more than 34% between July and August, and they’re down approx­i­mate­ly 70% from last year, accord­ing to our Eco­nom­ic and Indus­try Update. How­ev­er, after a rough sec­ond quar­ter, data shows that con­trac­tor busi­ness con­fi­dence is growing.Further, data from our Quar­ter­ly Home­own­er Project Activ­i­ty Track­er shows that slight­ly more home­own­ers turned to pros in Q3 for exper­tise and spe­cial­iza­tions on com­plex projects, yet small­er-scaled projects leaned DIY, led by the desire to save on costs. Few­er kitchen and bath hires sig­naled that ris­ing bath activ­i­ty was large­ly DIY-dri­vers, reflect­ing selec­tive, need-based pro­fes­sion­al use.

8. DIY Homeowners are Moderating Planned Spending

Planned spend­ing for 2026 fell below past-year lev­els, land­ing between essen­tial and dis­cre­tionary cat­e­gories, sig­nal­ing greater cau­tion on larg­er, non-essen­tial upgrades. Based on home remod­el­ing sta­tis­tics from our research, safe­ty, mobil­i­ty, and rental income are gain­ing trac­tion as moti­va­tions for home improve­ment projects, along­side steady pri­or­i­ties to opti­mize com­fort and home val­ues. In light of macro finan­cial con­cerns, indi­vid­u­als are find­ing ways to tight­en their bud­gets. Most home­own­ers are plan­ning to spend less on din­ing, enter­tain­ment, vaca­tions, and hob­bies in 2026, but only about one-quar­ter of house­holds plan to spend less on home improve­ment activ­i­ties. The major­i­ty of home­own­ers are pri­or­i­tiz­ing spend­ing on home improve­ment above oth­er dis­cre­tionary cat­e­gories, even if that spend­ing is still like­ly to be cen­tered on projects cost­ing less than $5,000. In gen­er­al, more than half of DIY home­own­ers feel it’s a bad time to start a project between $5,000 and $25,000 and near­ly two-thirds feel it is a bad time to start a project that is $25,000+.

9. Project Priorities are Shifting

Over the past quar­ter, we’ve observed some shifts in types of home improve­ment projects, some of which may be expect­ed as the sea­sons change. The exte­ri­or-heavy activ­i­ty report­ed in quar­ter 2 shift­ed indoors in the third quar­ter, with baths and whole-home sys­tems advanc­ing. There was also a heav­ier focus on liv­ing spaces, such as fam­i­ly rooms, dens, and play­rooms. Large yard and gar­den projects bucked the sea­son­al slow­down, while tighter finances redi­rect­ed focus from mid-scale out­door work toward man­age­able inte­ri­or projects. Look­ing ahead to what prod­ucts home­own­ers intend to pur­chase in the next few months, the research shows that they favor prac­ti­cal, aes­thet­ic upgrades, such as fur­ni­ture, appli­ances, paint and land­scap­ing, which reflects lin­ger­ing cau­tion on large dis­cre­tionary projects.

Gaining Insight into Homeowner Readiness Trends

To learn more about home­own­ers’ cur­rent per­spec­tives on home buy­ing and home improve­ment, as well as how finan­cial con­cerns and eco­nom­ic uncer­tain­ty influ­ence their incli­na­tion to take on new projects, down­load our most cur­rent Quar­ter­ly Home­own­er Project Activ­i­ty Track­er and Eco­nom­ic and Indus­try Update. As a mem­ber of the Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute, you will gain access to not only this research, but oth­er data and insights on both pro­fes­sion­al cus­tomers and DIY con­sumers to help guide your busi­ness strate­gies in the com­ing year.