Homeowners planning fewer projects

Why are Amer­i­can home­own­ers plan­ning few­er home improve­ment projects?

Project plan­ning inci­dence is down across the Unit­ed States com­pared to pre­vi­ous quar­ters. Why are Amer­i­can home­own­ers plan­ning few­er home improve­ment projects, and what does this mean for your busi­ness?

Since 2012, the Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute (HIRI) has con­duct­ed an ongo­ing sur­vey of adults in the Unit­ed States regard­ing their planned home improve­ment projects. Each quar­ter, approx­i­mate­ly 3,000 home­own­ers share their home improve­ment plans across 32 poten­tial project areas.

Here are some highlights:

• After a strong 18 months, project plan­ning dropped dur­ing the first quar­ter of 2019, result­ing in the low­est plan­ning inci­dence since the first quar­ter of 2016. This may be due to last winter’s weath­er pat­terns or the nature of recent­ly com­plet­ed projects. Since repairs and main­te­nance are the biggest moti­va­tors in project plan­ning, if home­own­ers recent­ly com­plet­ed the project — dur­ing a warm Decem­ber, per­haps — they sim­ply may have no imme­di­ate need for project planning.
• Even with over­all inci­dences trend­ing down­ward, out­door projects are show­ing some of the largest increas­es, with more than 30% of home­own­ers plan­ning to work on their lawns and gar­dens and near­ly 15% plan­ning to paint the exte­ri­or of their homes. 

Learn more about con­sumer atti­tudes toward home improve­ment by becom­ing a mem­ber of HIRI. As a mem­ber, you’ll enjoy access to dozens of exclu­sive stud­ies and net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties as well as dis­count­ed reg­is­tra­tion for this year’s HIRI Insights Summit.