Navigating the Home Improvement Market Given the October 2024 U.S. Size of Home Improvement Market Forecast

Whether your role lies in inform­ing tar­get­ed mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, dri­ving prod­uct devel­op­ment or ana­lyz­ing con­sumer insights, stay­ing ahead of mar­ket trends and eco­nom­ic shifts is cru­cial for mak­ing strate­gic deci­sions. To aid your efforts, ana­lysts for the Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute recent­ly released its lat­est iter­a­tion of the U.S. Home Improve­ment Prod­ucts Mar­ket Fore­cast, offer­ing valu­able insights into the state of the indus­try and the broad­er eco­nom­ic landscape.

Here’s what we know:

The Current Home Improvement Products Market Outlook

The Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute (HIRI) has just pub­lished its Octo­ber 2024 Size of Mar­ket report, fore­cast­ing a mixed out­look for the U.S. home improve­ment prod­ucts mar­ket through 2028. The total home improve­ment mar­ket is expect­ed to shrink by 0.1% in 2024, fol­low­ing a 1.6% decline in 2023, bring­ing total sales to $545 bil­lion. How­ev­er, a recov­ery is bright on the hori­zon, with mar­ket growth pro­ject­ed to rebound by 3.9% in 2025.

Home Improvement Market Outlook

Home improve­ment prod­uct sales among con­sumers are antic­i­pat­ed to dip by 0.2% in 2024 but rise by 4.2% in 2025.

Home improve­ment prod­uct sales among pros are fore­cast­ed to grow by a mod­est 0.1% in 2024, fol­lowed by a 3.2% rise in 2025.

Region­al­ly speak­ing, growth will vary across U.S. regions, with stronger per­for­mance expect­ed in the South and West. Growth will also vary by prod­uct category.

Remem­ber that growth in the home improve­ment mar­ket peaked in 2021, so 2024’s growth rates are noth­ing to be alarmed about and there are key mar­ket dri­vers enabling a resilient out­look for home improve­ment. The mar­ket is still active­ly per­form­ing quite well, espe­cial­ly com­pared to his­tor­i­cal fig­ures, and the fore­cast­ed growth rates for 2025 sig­nal positively. 

Real dis­pos­able income grew by near­ly 4% in 2023, has held steady in 2024, and is antic­i­pat­ed to grow annu­al­ly by over 2% in 2025 through 2028. This growth in dis­pos­able income is like­ly to dri­ve con­sumer spend­ing on future home improve­ment projects.

These growth rates sug­gest a promis­ing rebound after the short-term set­backs expe­ri­enced in 2023. Fur­ther­more, they point to an excit­ing poten­tial for home improve­ment pro­fes­sion­als tar­get­ing con­sumers or professionals.

Merchandise Lines on the Rise in 2025

The U.S. Home Improve­ment Prod­ucts Mar­ket Fore­cast iden­ti­fies pro­jec­tions for the top 10 fastest-grow­ing mer­chan­dise lines for both con­sumers and pro­fes­sion­als based on pro­ject­ed CAGR in 2025 – 2028. These insights can help you align your prod­uct offer­ings and inven­to­ry lev­els with cur­rent and future mar­ket demand.

Top 10 Fastest-Growing Merchandise Lines for Consumers

• Soft-sur­face floor coverings

• Hard-sur­face floor coverings

• Lawn and gar­den equip­ment and supplies

• Oth­er build­ing materials

• Dimen­sion­al lum­ber and boards

• Roof­ing mate­ri­als and supplies

• Kitchen and bath cabinets

• Doors and moldings

• Paint and preservatives

• Nurs­ery stock and soil treatments

Top 10 Fastest-Growing Merchandise Lines for Professionals

• Major house­hold appliances

• Hard­ware

• Tools

• Gyp­sum and spe­cial­ty boards

• Dimen­sion­al lum­ber and boards

• Ply­wood and relat­ed products

• Insu­la­tion and weatherproofing

• Plumb­ing supplies

• Elec­tri­cal supplies

• Oth­er build­ing materials

HIRI mem­bers receive access to the full U.S. Home Improve­ment Prod­ucts Mar­ket Fore­cast, which includes spe­cif­ic growth rate infor­ma­tion by prod­uct cat­e­go­ry, dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed by con­sumer ver­sus pro cus­tomers. The study includes: Prod­uct cat­e­go­ry – lev­el infor­ma­tion for both the con­sumer and pro­fes­sion­al mar­ket, includ­ing the dol­lar amount of sales for each prod­uct cat­e­go­ry and a cor­re­spond­ing year-over-year comparison Geo­graph­ic detail for the nine cen­sus divi­sions, show­ing, for exam­ple, eco­nom­ic growth and slow­down rates as well as future fore­casts by region Eco­nom­ic infor­ma­tion such as con­sumer spend­ing, sav­ing, invest­ment, mort­gage rates and employ­ment information

For full access to the report and oth­er pro­pri­etary research, become a mem­ber of HIRI.