2023-2027 Market Expectations and Trends in Master Bathroom Remodeling Activities

Mas­ter bath­room remod­el­ing is a pop­u­lar home improve­ment project for a few reasons.

For instance, these spaces get plen­ty of dai­ly use for a mul­ti­tude of per­son­al and impor­tant uses. Indi­vid­u­als often per­ceive the mas­ter bath­room as a haven, one where they expect a cer­tain lev­el of com­fort, pri­va­cy, and convenience.

Addi­tion­al­ly, they require reg­u­lar main­te­nance and upgrades to ensure the var­i­ous fea­tures and fix­tures — from elec­tric­i­ty and plumb­ing to floor­ing, van­i­ties and wall fin­ish­es — are kept up to date, which means func­tion­ing prop­er­ly, look­ing attrac­tive, and cater­ing to the evolv­ing lifestyles of homeowners.

The Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute pro­vides HIRI mem­bers with exten­sive data cov­er­ing mar­ket trends and fore­casts, enabling build­ing prod­uct man­u­fac­tur­ers to under­stand how and why prop­er­ty own­ers take on mas­ter bath remod­els, whether on their own or with the help of a pro­fes­sion­al con­trac­tor, and pre­pare accordingly.

Master Bathroom Remodeling Market Size and Forecast for 2023 – 2027

Our research shows that, for DIY home­own­ers, the mar­kets per­tain­ing to bath­room remod­el­ing projects—plumb­ing fix­tures and sup­plies, as well as bath cab­i­netry and coun­ter­tops — are expect­ed to decline in 2023 and 2024, with growth rebound­ing 2025 through 2027.

The fore­cast for the pro mar­kets is more opti­mistic. Spend­ing for plumb­ing fix­tures and sup­plies will have slow­er growth, but should still increase to more than $5.1 bil­lion by 2027.

For cab­i­nets and coun­ter­tops, it’s a sim­i­lar sto­ry. Spend­ing has dipped in 2023 com­pared to 2024, but it should be fol­lowed by a peri­od of recov­ery from 2024 to 2027, grow­ing to rough­ly $8.7 billion.

Cur­rent­ly, accord­ing to the Nation­al Kitchen & Bath Asso­ci­a­tion, more than 85 per­cent of mort­gages have locked-in rates of 5 per­cent or below. Because of this, home­own­ers are opt­ing for home remod­els to meet their chang­ing lifestyles, as opposed to mov­ing into the new homes.

As the Nation­al Kitchen & Bath Asso­ci­a­tion notes, the pan­dem­ic saw a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of peo­ple rush­ing home-buy­ing deci­sions and set­tling into prop­er­ties that were not exact­ly what they want­ed, but close enough. Now, there is a seg­ment of res­i­den­tial cus­tomers who will be look­ing to under­take mas­ter bath­room ren­o­va­tions or addi­tions to make those homes more suitable.

Consumer Behaviors that Drive Purchases and Project Decisions

Mas­ter bath­room remod­els can run the gamut from cos­met­ic touch ups and refresh­ing the design to mov­ing walls to change the floor plan, expand the space, or add new fix­tures. They include a vari­ety of mate­ri­als and prod­ucts, includ­ing cab­i­nets, coun­ter­tops, paint, floor­ing, plumb­ing fix­tures, show­ers, bath­tubs, and gen­er­al build­ing and plumb­ing supplies.

In 2022, paint­ing was the most com­mon type of work being done in the bath­room mar­ket, but in 2023, it’s being over­tak­en by floor­ing replace­ments, installs, and repairs. We’re also wit­ness­ing a jump from 26 per­cent to 39 per­cent in the projects that include installing, repair­ing or replac­ing elec­tri­cal out­lets and fixtures.

Improv­ing aes­thet­ics and increas­ing func­tion­al­i­ty are the main dri­vers behind bath­room remod­el­ing projects. 

3 in 4 cus­tomers make the deci­sion to under­take a mas­ter bath­room remod­el­ing project in the first half the year, with Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary being par­tic­u­lar­ly opti­mal months. This gives plen­ty of time for them to con­duct research and hire contractors.

Then about 30 per­cent of projects will kick off in the ear­ly sum­mer, with a major­i­ty of project com­ple­tions tak­ing place in July and August. 

Where Consumers Are Making Product Purchases for Bathroom Remodeling

As with oth­er home remod­el­ing projects, in-store pur­chas­es far out­pace online pur­chas­es when it comes to plumb­ing and bath products. 

Approx­i­mate­ly 72 per­cent of plumb­ing prod­ucts are bought at a store, with home cen­ters account­ing for rough­ly 69 per­cent of those pur­chas­es, while only 19 per­cent are made online and 9 per­cent through pros. For oth­er bath­room prod­ucts and fix­tures, about 67 per­cent of pur­chas­es are made in store, com­pared to 22 per­cent online and 11 per­cent through pros.

A major­i­ty of the time, prod­ucts and sup­plies are pur­chased by cus­tomers for pre-planned repairs and replace­ments or as part of a mas­ter bath remod­el­ing project. About 14 per­cent of pur­chas­es are asso­ci­at­ed with planned addi­tions, while 14 per­cent are the result of emer­gency repairs and replacements.

What are Master Bath Trends for 2023?

One trend for remod­el­ing is the desire to make mas­ter bath­rooms more ener­gy effi­cient, which con­sumers see as a long-term invest­ment. Tools like water assis­tants can help mon­i­tor water usage and iden­ti­fy if there are issues lead­ing to waste, or there are water recy­clers that reuse water from baths, show­ers and wash­ing machines for out­door irri­ga­tion or even toilets.

Addi­tion­al­ly, pur­chas­ing behav­iors show a trend toward new bath­room-relat­ed tech­nolo­gies that are aimed at improv­ing phys­i­cal and men­tal health; pro­vid­ing a seam­less expe­ri­ence; and cus­tomiz­ing the space for unique needs and lifestyles.

For instance, there is a grow­ing demand for touch-free or hands-free faucets in mas­ter bath­rooms. Some oth­er new­er tech­nol­o­gy being inte­grat­ed in mas­ter bath remod­els include:

• Chro­mother­a­py and aro­mather­a­py devices
• Inte­grat­ing Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (AI) through smart ther­mostats, voice assis­tants, and wire­less­ly con­nect­ed appliances
• Smart toi­lets and showers
• Floor heat­ing systems
• Flota­tion tubs

Responding to Market Expectations and Trends in 2024

When it comes to bath­room remod­els, cus­tomers demon­strate a greater need for guid­ance than they do for oth­er home improve­ment projects. Accord­ing to HIRI size of mar­ket research, about 79 per­cent say they feel the need for advice, infor­ma­tion, and tips.

Bath­rooms rep­re­sent a space with­in the home where there is a lot going on: plumb­ing, elec­tric­i­ty, high mois­ture expo­sure, the need for pri­va­cy, and dai­ly use. Indi­vid­u­als want to make sure they’re mak­ing the right deci­sions to max­i­mize the func­tion­al­i­ty, com­fort, con­ve­nience, and dura­bil­i­ty with­in their mas­ter bathroom.

Ven­dors and sup­pli­ers who meet this need and pro­vide mar­ket­ing and cus­tomer ser­vice that is infor­ma­tive, insight­ful, and easy to under­stand can give them­selves a com­pet­i­tive edge. Being an author­i­ta­tive source to pro­vide advice and tips will help you moti­vate con­sumers to choose your brand over oth­ers when mak­ing their pur­chas­ing decision.

Addi­tion­al­ly, it’s impor­tant to keep in mind that mil­len­ni­als are becom­ing a sig­nif­i­cant pur­chas­er group for bath­room remod­el­ing prod­ucts and supplies. 

• Mil­len­ni­als are the pri­ma­ry pur­chas­er age group for bath hard­ware, bath­room sinks, sink repair items, cab­i­nets, show­er trays, tub/​shower doors, and bathtubs. 
• Baby Boomers are the pri­ma­ry pur­chas­er age group for faucets and toi­let repair parts.
• Mil­len­ni­als and baby boomers share the title for bath­room van­i­ty tops and coun­ters; toi­lets; show­er heads; and water heaters. 
• Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are the pri­ma­ry pur­chas­er groups for toi­let seats.
• Mil­len­ni­als and Gen Xers are the pri­ma­ry pur­chas­er groups for bathtub/​shower surrounds.

This is impor­tant to keep in mind when design­ing and mar­ket­ing mas­ter bath­room remod­el­ing prod­ucts and sup­plies. You are typ­i­cal­ly tar­get­ing old­er indi­vid­u­als who are in their 60s and 70s or younger home­own­ers in their 30s and 40s — and their moti­va­tions for remod­el­ing a mas­ter bath­room will vary.

For exam­ple, old­er home­own­ers are more like­ly to be upgrad­ing for the pur­pose of improv­ing liv­abil­i­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty, which includes installing acces­si­ble show­ers, bath­tubs and toi­lets. Mean­while, mil­len­ni­als might be remod­el­ing a mas­ter bath­room in their first home or an old­er house so that it bet­ter fits their tastes and lifestyle.

Final­ly, when man­u­fac­tur­ing bath­room remod­el prod­ucts and plumb­ing sup­plies, it’s impor­tant to make sure you’re devel­op­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing items that inte­grate and/​or are com­pat­i­ble with new­er tech­nolo­gies to meet ris­ing demands.

Getting Information and Insight on Master Bath Remodeling

For build­ing pro­fes­sion­als and sup­pli­ers, HIRI is a com­pre­hen­sive source of data and insights. By becom­ing a mem­ber, you have access to research from a wide vari­ety of brands and com­pa­nies in the home improve­ment indus­try, and it’s avail­able wher­ev­er and when­ev­er you might need it.