September 17, 2026
Fast Fact
Homeowners who finance spend nearly 3 times more per project than those who don't, $12,500 versus $4,250, despite having lower net worth.
Financed and non-financed homeowners report the same median household income. The gap shows up in net worth instead, $225,000 for those who finance versus $450,000 for those who don't, suggesting financing lets homeowners with steady income but less accumulated equity take on the bigger version of a project rather than the smaller one.
September 17, 2026
Fast Fact
Financing use ranges from 13% of siding buyers to 70% of house wrap buyers, even though both are similarly high-value purchases.
Siding buyers spend $17,550 on average and finance only 13% of the time. House wrap buyers spend a comparable $15,500 and finance 70% of the time. House wrap is typically sold as part of a larger, contractor-led exterior job where financing is already part of the conversation, while siding is often bought as a standalone material decision without that same conversation built in.
September 17, 2026
Fast Fact
Project costs jumped as much as 187% in Q2 2026, but the share of projects using financing fell from 15.2% to 13.1% over the same quarter.
Yard, garden, and outdoor project spend led the increase, rising from $470 to $1,349 in a single quarter. Financing use moving in the opposite direction from cost is not what rising costs would typically predict, pointing to real demand that has not yet found the right financing offer.
September 11, 2026
Fast Fact
Siding and exterior trim was the fastest-growing building product category over the past five years, but its growth is set to slow sharply, from 9.2% annually to just 2.2%.
Windows, skylights, and patio doors show a similar pattern, decelerating from 8.7% annual growth over 2020-2025 to a projected 2.8% a year through 2030. Kitchen and bath cabinets are forecast to be one of the few categories to shrink outright in 2026, down 2.1%.
September 11, 2026
Fast Fact
Hardware stores and home centers pulled away from the rest of the building materials retail category in the first half of 2026.
Hardware store sales grew 8.7% in the first quarter of 2026 and 9.8% in the second quarter of 2026, while home center sales grew an estimated 6.1% and 6.6% over the same two quarters. Other building material dealers moved the opposite direction, with sales estimated down 7.4% and 6.2% in those same two quarters, even as the overall category fell 2.1% for full-year 2025.
September 11, 2026
Fast Fact
Home improvement growth is set to diverge sharply by region in 2026, from 4.1% in the East South Central to just 1.4% in New England.
The East South Central region will lead all regions in 2026 growth, followed by the West South Central at 3.4% and the South Atlantic at 2.8%. New England and the Middle Atlantic will trail every other region, growing just 1.4% and 1.7% respectively.
September 11, 2026
Fast Fact
The U.S. added 162,000 jobs in August 2026, reversing a loss of 70,000 jobs in August 2025, while construction unemployment fell to 3.1%.
National unemployment held steady at 4.1% in August 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Construction jobs added rose 22.2% from July 2026 to August 2026, swinging from negative growth in August 2025 to positive growth in August 2026.
September 11, 2026
Fast Fact
Contractor confidence turned broadly negative in the third quarter of 2026, reversing the mostly positive picture from the second quarter.
Landscape contractors posted the steepest drop, falling from 8.4 in Q2 2026 to 8.0 in Q3 2026 on the Farnsworth Contractor Index's 10-point scale. Remodeling and mechanical contractors also declined over the same period, while only exterior and finish contractors improved.
September 11, 2026
Fast Fact
Housing affordability improved across every region from July 2025 to July 2026, led by the West's 8.8% gain.
The national Housing Affordability Index rose 5.1% year over year to 103.3 in July 2026, also up 1.5% from June 2026, according to the National Association of Realtors. The West posted the largest year-over-year gain at 8.8%, followed by the South at 6.8%, the Midwest at 4.3%, and the Northeast at 4.1%.
September 4, 2026
Fast Fact
Canada's housing completions hit a 25-year high in 2025, reaching 259,026 units.
Completions rose 23.2% from 2024's 210,223 units, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Total housing starts climbed alongside them, up 5.6% to 259,028 units from 245,367 in 2024.
September 4, 2026
Fast Fact
Canadian retail sales at building material and garden equipment dealers reached $47.3 billion in 2025, up 3.4% from 2024.
Sales in this category have grown every year since 2019, up nearly 28% over that stretch, according to Statistics Canada.
September 4, 2026
Fast Fact
Canadian home prices are diverging sharply by region, Newfoundland and Labrador is up 9.3% year over year, while Ontario is down 2.9%.
The national average price ticked up just 0.2% year over year to $674,819, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. Smaller Atlantic and Prairie markets are driving most of the growth, while Ontario and British Columbia, the country's two largest markets by value, both declined.
August 13, 2026
Fast Fact
HIRI now forecasts 2.6% growth for the U.S. home improvement products market in 2026, accelerating to an average 3.8% a year from 2027 to 2029.
The market is projected to reach $540.1 billion in 2026, up from a revised $526.5 billion in 2025, according to HIRI's U.S. Home Improvement Products Market Forecast. Growth keeps building each year after that, pushing the market past $600 billion by 2029.
August 13, 2026
Fast Fact
Construction employment jumped 340% from June to July despite the broader economy losing 23,000 jobs in July.
Construction's unemployment rate fell to 3.7%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. National unemployment fell to 4.1%, but July's jobs report flipped negative, a reversal from June's 20,000 gain.
August 13, 2026
Fast Fact
Consumer home improvement spending is projected to grow faster than professional spending in 2026, a reversal from 2025.
Consumer spending fell 1.7% in 2025 but is projected to rebound 3.7% in 2026, per HIRI's U.S. Home Improvement Products Market Forecast. Professional spending moved the opposite direction, surging 6.9% in 2025 before growth cools to just 1.0% in 2026 by current forecasts.
August 13, 2026
Fast Fact
The remodeling industry's future outlook fell to borderline-poor in Q2 2026, even as current conditions held positive.
The "current" and "future" conditions readings on the NAHB/Westlake Royal Remodeling Market Index both remain above 50. An index above 50 indicates that a higher share of remodelers view conditions as good rather than poor. Still, the future conditions reading slipped from 54 to 52 in Q2 2026, a sign that while remodelers feel more confident today, they are currently feeling less certain about the future.
July 29, 2026
Fast Fact
Homeowners flip negative on planned spending, as 30% plan to spend less on home improvement.
Households turned negative on home improvement spending for the first time in five quarters. 30% of homeowners now plan to spend less on home improvement over the next 12 months, versus only 27% who plan to spend more. This represents a reversal from Q1's even split.
July 29, 2026
Fast Fact
Average home improvement spend more than doubled this quarter, even as fewer homeowners took on projects.
Only 38% of homeowners completed a home improvement project in the last 90 days, the lowest share in five quarters. Simultaneously, average spend among those active households more than doubled in a single quarter.
July 29, 2026
Fast Fact
Homeowner caution deepened across all project cost categories this quarter.
Sentiment worsened across all project cost categories in Q2. For projects under $5,000, more homeowners called it a bad time to start than a good time for the first time in five quarters, 34% versus 32%. The $5,000 to $25,000 bracket posted a four percentage point increase in negative sentiment. Positive sentiment toward $25,000-plus projects softened, decreasing by a three percentage points.
July 29, 2026
Fast Fact
27% of homeowners have now received a quote for a project that has not started yet, a statistically significant increase.
Even as fewer homeowners started new projects this quarter, more pushed further into the planning pipeline. Quote requests rose from 17% to 20%, and that momentum carried through to an actual bid for a growing share of households, a clear sign of progress.
