A Year of Home Buying

Home sales have been a hot topic throughout much of the year. Aside from the short drop due to COVID-19 lockdowns this spring, home purchasing has exploded, showing growth rates more than 20% in recent months compared to last year. While this explosive growth has larger implications overall, like increasing home prices and homeownership rates and decreasing housing inventory, it also has a longer tail for those within the home improvement and remodeling industry. As shown in HIRI’s Consumer Project Planning survey and echoed by MetroSight’s Issi Romem at HIRI’s recent Virtual Summit, the time period following a home purchase is filled with a flurry of renovation activity by the new home owners.

There isn’t one way to define “normal” in 2020, especially when it comes to home improvement industry trends. 

This year’s HIRI Summit was, like most conferences and events in 2020, held a little differently — though that didn’t take away from the wealth of knowledge the panel of experts imparted.

The HIRI Virtual Summit 2020 event provided attendees access to valuable data and market research on home improvement over a three-day span. The best part was, this year, registrants could attend from wherever they were, at no cost. 

The construction industry has seen monumental shifts and significant economic changes in recent years (not to mention the last few months). It’s an understatement to say that business hasn’t been predictable. 

It can help to get some perspective — or at least a way to navigate through the changes and trends. A HIRI membership offers its members a glimpse of just that: the bigger picture. 

Home-basing is a term coined by Trusted Media Brands and refers to the act of staying home and creating experiences there, as opposed to going out on the town. This trend has become especially popular with quarantines and stay-at-home orders in place around the country this year. 

The HIRI 2020 Virtual Summit included a presentation by Nick Grzechowiak, Chief Content Officer at Trusted Media Brands, on this trend. Entitled “Home Basing: Trends and Insights on Your Most Valuable Investment,” it explored the trends in homeowner and DIYer purchasing activity and helped Summit attendees understand the data that current market research reveals around home-basing. 

To measure the current economic climate and understand purchasing behavior in home improvement, the COVID-19 Impact Tracker was developed and used to research consumer purchases from home improvement stores by the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) in partnership with The Farnsworth Group. 

HIRI and The Farnsworth Group made it a priority to study home improvement shopping behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. This  year, the impact of COVID on the behavior of home improvement professionals and DIYers have been significant, and we tracked this information on a regular basis to stay on top of the trend. 

HIRI's Size of the Home Improvement Products Market is the home improvement industry’s only product focused size of market study providing data back to 1992 with 5 year forecasts for the consumer and professional markets.

HIRI releases two forecast updates every year for HIRI members. Learn more on how to become a HIRI member.

Working in today’s home improvement industry looks very different than it did five years ago. (Did you think you’d hear this much about Zoom meetings one year ago?) While the industry might look different, some things remain the same: This year’s HIRI Summitis sure to delight our attendees. 

But the benefits of attending the HIRI’s 2020 Virtual Summit are greater because this year ... the event is entirely free. 

When home improvement companies share knowledge and create relationships with others in the industry, everyone wins.

As the only non-profit organization dedicated to home improvement research, we aim to provide our members with fundamental home improvement needed to make the best decisions for their businesses. That’s why we want to be able to answer all the questions both our members and potential members may have about membership. We want to make this process as easy and streamlined as possible. 

The Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) and The Farnsworth Group partnered up for the past three months to conduct essential research regarding project requests and closures, homeowner DIY purchases, contractor business, and materials supply trends in the wake of COVID-19. 

The home improvement industry has seen significant shifts this year, especially with the rise of DIY projects due to stay-at-home orders. Keeping up with how homeowners and construction professionals make their purchasing decisions is a challenge. 

Research is a form of scientific investigation that uses empirical methods to collect data through various methodologies, is topical and always begins with an industry question. The data gathered and/or disseminated is then used to inform industry professionals, such as those in the home improvement industry, so they can make appropriate decisions that are relevant to their own goals.

Not all home improvement research is conducted the same, however. While there are multiple methodologies used in research, the two main research types are primary and secondary research. It’s important for home improvement industry professionals to know the difference between them and what benefits each research type can bring to their knowledge and project execution.

The impacts of the current pandemic are widespread, and the construction industry (and its economy) is no stranger to its effects. The impact of COVID-19 on home improvement projects has become a challenge for many manufacturers and retailers.

A few purchasing trends have changed significantly, especially with DIY projects and research around home improvement products. If you’re selling to DIYers and home improvement contractors, there are a few things to note when it comes to selling your product during the current COVID crisis. 

In the first quarter of 2020, the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) partnered with The Farnsworth Group to survey more than 500 contractor professionals to gain their insight into the labor shortage and how it has impacted their business. Here are a few highlights:

• Half of the professionals surveyed said that at least one of their projects was delayed due to the labor shortage and of these, 35% experienced significant delays of more than 3 weeks.
• 53% of contractor professionals are taking on fewer projects in order to combat the labor shortage. Others are narrowing the types of projects they’ll take on and/or the geographic region they will service. 

To learn more about the labor shortage in the construction industry, download this free infographic detailing results from the HIRI 2020 Contractor Topic Study.

COVID-19 and the DIYers' Response

Recently, the Home Improvement Research Institute partnered with The Farnsworth Group to track the impact of COVID-19 on DIY home improvement activity.  

Announcing Our Weekly COVID-19 Impact Tracker

Last week, partnered with The Farnsworth Group, we released the first data from our new weekly COVID-19 impact tracker. This tracker shows COVID-19’s impact on our industry.

We will be fielding a survey weekly to 1,000 DIYers and hundreds of Contractors to get a consistent pulse on the buying behaviors and project statuses broken down by region and generation.

NEW: Q4 2019 Updates on Consumer Project Sentiment

Project planning is defined as any work homeowners are planning to do around the home in the three months following the quarter in which they are surveyed. There are 33 possible home improvement project areas (32 specific projects and “other”) that are covered in the study, ranging from room renovations to roofing, driveway or walkway installation or repair to plumbing or electrical projects to lawn and garden upgrades.

New Webinar: Discover the Latest in Contractor Purchasing Trends

In 2019, the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) partnered with The Farnsworth Group to survey 1,695 contractor professionals, including remodelers and specialty tradespeople, to gain insight into the contractor product market. Here are a few highlights:

Amplify Your Category’s Growth in 2020 and Beyond

Offered by the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) in partnership with Kantar Futures, the Future of Home Improvement study aims to identify how consumer trends will influence products and services that homeowners will demand in the next two to five years.