Skyrocketing Home Improvement
It’s a perfect time to capture more leads.
The coronavirus pandemic is causing a home improvement surge. The more time we spend at home, the more we want to fix it up. Pandemic home improvement and remodeling is booming and there’s no slowdown in sight.
While staying at home, many homeowners noticed things that needed repair and areas they wanted to remodel. This new awareness and home improvement desire resulted in a surge in work for home improvement professionals. Simultaneously home values soared, and mortgage rates were at record lows enabling homeowners to refinance or procure Home Equity Lines of Credit giving them the funds to afford big remodels.
Despite the economic shutdown from the coronavirus pandemic, home prices went up. According to ATTOM Data Solutions, the home sale profit increased year over year in every U.S. market.
Many behavioral changes fostered the home improvement demand. The money people would have spent on vacations and entertainment went into their living spaces. Stimulus checks went to fixing up homes too. All these factors contributed to increased revenue in home construction and remodeling. In June Houzz reported a 58% annual increase in project leads for home professionals. Home extensions and additions increased 52%. Outdoor living space remodels were the most sought-after projects because of the no contact nature of the work.
As home improvement businesses took off, marketing and advertising grew along with it. During the pandemic, TheHomeMag excelled at connecting ready to buy homeowners with local home improvement professionals. “We continued delivering our magazine to single-family homes with an even more captive audience than before because everyone was staying home,” said Ralph Harris, CEO of TheHomeMag So Cal.
Staying at home definitively resulted in new home enhancement plans. “This is the highest level of home improvement spending we’ve ever seen,” said Max Anderson, chief economist at Porch.com. According to a recent Porch.com survey more than 75% of U.S. homeowners said that during the pandemic they had done some kind of home improvement project. As more safety restrictions are lifted, we may see a slight decrease in home remodeling activity but for now the home improvement business is still growing.
Sources: ATTOM Data Solutions, Houzz, Porch.com, Principia Consulting