November 18, 2026
Webinar
WEBINAR: HIRI Home Improvement Industry & Recent Research Update - November 2026
Join HIRI Executive Director Dave King for a timely update on the latest trends, market conditions, and research shaping the home improvement industry. This webinar will highlight key findings from HIRI’s recent studies and provide actionable insights into homeowner behavior, contractor sentiment, and emerging market opportunities.
November 5, 2026
Webinar
WEBINAR: Canada’s Economic Outlook: Key Trends Shaping the Home Improvement Industry
Join S&P Global Market Intelligence for a timely update on Canada’s economic outlook and the key forces shaping the home improvement industry.
October 28, 2026
Webinar
WEBINAR: HIRI Home Improvement Market Forecast & Quarterly Tracker Briefing - October 2026
Join Dave King for a timely briefing on HIRI’s latest market data, trends, and forecasts to help your organization plan with confidence.
October 15, 2026
Webinar
HIRI Hosted Webinar: Why You're Losing Website Clicks (and How to Win Buyers Anyway): What AI Search Means for Home Improvement Brands
AI engines now answer buyer questions directly and bypass your site entirely. Manufacturers are losing control of the narrative, and losing sales, before it shows up in the data. Learn what it takes to be cited, recommended and chosen in AI search.
October 6, 2026
Blog
Reputation Is the New Ranking in Home & Construction Discoverability
Your website traffic may be falling. That doesn't mean customers stopped researching. It means the research moved elsewhere.
October 2, 2026
Blog
Pro Forecast Revised Up, Consumer Forecast Revised Down in SOM Report
HIRI's September 2026 market forecast trimmed its outlook for 2026 growth by a tenth of a percentage point, from 2.6% to 2.5%. That is a small revision on its own, but it hides a real split between the two segments that make up the total, with the consumer segment revised down and the professional segment revised up. For home improvement manufacturers and retailers, which side of that split your business sits on matters more right now than the headline number does. This piece reads the HIRI's Q3 2026 U.S. Size of the Home Improvement Products Market Report and Forecast to explain what changed from June through September, what stayed the same, and what it means for how you plan.
September 29, 2026
SUMMIT: 2026 Home Improvement Insights Summit
The HIRI Home Improvement Summit brings together manufacturers, retailers, partners and all whose success is tied to the home improvement industry. Most attendees work in strategy, insights and marketing and come to the Summit to network, craft smarter strategies, improve planning, and make better decisions.
September 21, 2026
Blog
What My Kids (and Utility Bill) Taught Me About Smart Home Tech
Somewhere in the chaos of raising two kids, I've become our household's de facto systems administrator. I check the thermostat schedule before bed. I glance outdoors to make sure our yard looks somewhat alive. And more than anything, I check the security cameras from my phone when I'm traveling, just to see that everything (and everyone) is fine. Convenience matters. So does the utility bill. But what actually keeps me coming back to smart home technology is peace of mind. Turns out, I'm not alone.
September 17, 2026
Blog
Pro Data: The Segmentation Edge
Generic Pro strategies aren't working Most brands have Pro data. Very few have Pro segmentation. A roofer, an electrician, a remodeler, and a landscaper all qualify as professional buyers. They may even shop at the same retailers. But treating them as one audience isn't an effective way to think about the market, and a top-line Pro number is what makes that an easy mistake to keep making.
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 15, 2026
Blog
Home Improvement Industry Update: Operating in a Flat Market
When faced with a flat market, as is currently the case for the home improvement industry in 2026, it can be more challenging for stakeholders, from manufacturers and retailers to contractors and distributors, to know how to achieve growth.
September 15, 2026
Blog
Datavations Pulse: HIRI Member Edition
Retailer-Level Intelligence Built for Building Products Your next merchant meeting is on the calendar. You know your category, you know your product, and you know your pitch. What you might not know is what happened at Lowe's last quarter while you were focused on Home Depot. Or that a competitor quietly picked up six months of momentum at Menards. That blind spot is what Pulse was built to close. And starting now, HIRI members get a version of Pulse that nobody else has access to.
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%.
