2024 Consumer Spending Patterns Likely to Impact Home Improvement Purchases in 2025

Home­own­ers seem pre­pared and moti­vat­ed to take on a vari­ety of home improve­ment projects over the com­ing months based on HIRI research.While home­own­ers do remain notably con­cerned about per­son­al finances, infla­tion, and the state of the econ­o­my, there is plen­ty of inten­tion behind planned DIY projects, espe­cial­ly to sup­port main­te­nance and repairs.Exploring major trends and pat­terns among home­own­er activ­i­ty will help build­ing prod­ucts man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers iden­ti­fy which fac­tors shape pur­chas­ing deci­sions, as well as how and where home­own­ers are con­duct­ing their research and doing their shopping.

What Factors Will Influence Homeowner Motivation and Project Activity in 2025?

Over­all, there were sev­er­al pos­i­tive spend­ing pat­terns and signs of home improve­ment activ­i­ty in 2024 that are expect­ed to con­tin­ue in 2025, as cap­tured in ourQuar­ter­ly Home­own­er Project Activ­i­ty Track­er. Dis­cre­tionary moti­va­tions for under­tak­ing projects — such as home enjoy­ment and improved qual­i­ty of life — increased dur­ing this peri­od. Eco­nom­ic, finan­cial, and polit­i­cal anx­i­eties eased post-elec­tion, with improved per­son­al finances in Q4. How­ev­er, home­own­ers remain cau­tious, with infla­tion­ary pres­sures still top of mind for homeowners.

Here is an overview at some of the major pat­terns and trends that emerged in regards to home improve­ment activ­i­ty and how they may affect man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers in the com­ing year:

1. Maintenance and Repair Projects Have Been Driving the DIY Sector

Through­out 2024, between 41 – 51% of home­own­ers com­plet­ed a home improve­ment project, with activ­i­ty high­est in Q3. Main­te­nance and repair projects, defined as rou­tine tasks and activ­i­ties to keep a home in good con­di­tion, led activ­i­ty, with yard, gar­den, and land­scape improve­ments being the pri­ma­ry type of projects com­plet­ed. Oth­er top moti­va­tions for engag­ing in home improve­ment projects were to enhance com­fort and liv­abil­i­ty and to update the home’s aes­thet­ic and style, fol­lowed by increas­ing the home’s val­ue. A few oth­er home­own­ers moti­va­tions saw a sig­nif­i­cant increase the sec­ond half of 2024, such as increas­ing safe­ty and secu­ri­ty and ener­gy efficiency.

2. Homeowners Investing More In Projects

By Q4 of 2024, the aver­age amount spent on home improve­ment has increased to just under $5,000 — the high­est spend­ing per quar­ter for the year. How­ev­er, future home improve­ment spend­ing sen­ti­ment remained con­ser­v­a­tive, with only 30% plan­ning increas­es, and pri­or­i­tiz­ing main­te­nance over aes­thet­ic upgrades. This prag­mat­ic approach reflects a mea­sured response to ongo­ing eco­nom­ic uncertainties.63% of home­own­ers relied on exist­ing cash and sav­ings to cov­er expens­es and 43% used a cred­it card in Q4 2024. Home­own­ers also have been spend­ing more of their time on projects, with the aver­age DIY hours ris­ing to 37 hours in the last 90 days.

3. Uncertainty Drives Postponements and Cancellations

Eco­nom­ic uncer­tain­ty and per­son­al finances remained a top con­cern for home­own­ers through­out 2024. While post­pone­ments and can­ce­la­tions did increase in Q3, by Q4 there was a return to the same lev­els seen in the first half of 2024. There’s a lin­ger­ing con­cern over macro­eco­nom­ic issues, such as the econ­o­my and infla­tion, with both issues affect­ing more than half of home­own­ers. The more cer­tain­ty that home­own­ers gain, the more they are inclined to fol­low through on home improve­ment when they have the resources to do so.

4. Material and Labor Availability Will Continue to Affect Project Completion

While mate­r­i­al and labor costs are like­ly to remain the top two rea­sons for post­pon­ing or can­celling a project in 2025, two oth­er fac­tors are still affect­ing project com­ple­tion among home­own­ers: the avail­abil­i­ty of build­ing prod­ucts and labor­ers to do the work. Both of these fac­tors have a large influ­ence on home­own­ers’ abil­i­ty to com­plete their projects, whether they’re doing it on their own or work­ing with a con­trac­tor or spe­cial­ty ser­vice providers. For home­own­ers who post­poned or can­celed a project in 2024, about 1 in 10 did so because mate­ri­als were unavail­able and anoth­er 1 in 10 did so because of chal­lenges with labor availability.

5. Plans for Future Projects on the Rise

Ris­ing paint and dry­wall pur­chase inten­tions in Q4 may sig­nal grow­ing dis­cre­tionary home improve­ment activ­i­ty that con­tin­ues in 2025.About 3 in 4 home­own­ers were plan­ning to under­take a home improve­ment, repair, or main­te­nance project in Q1 of 2025, accord­ing to our research. Home main­te­nance and ren­o­va­tion needs are keep­ing this num­ber up, with half plan­ning rou­tine tasks and activ­i­ties to keep their home in good con­di­tion and pre­vent the need for major repairs. Mean­while, one in three report­ed plans for home repairs — such as fix­ing or restor­ing parts of a home that are dam­aged, bro­ken, or not func­tion­ing properly.

6. In-store Purchasing from Big Box Retailers Remains Primary Channel Among DIYers

Big box chains — includ­ing Lowe’s and Home Depot — con­tin­ue to dom­i­nate home improve­ment prod­uct chan­nels, with three out of four DIY home­own­ers mak­ing a pur­chase for their project at this type of retail­er in each quar­ter of 2024. Local hard­ware stores main­tain only a slight edge over online-only retail­ers, such as Ama­zon, Google, and Way­fair. Inter­est­ing­ly, online order­ing for in-store pick­up increased to 35% in Q4 of 2024 while in-store pur­chas­es declined to the low­est lev­el all year — at 72%. This could sig­nal a lev­el of sea­son­al­i­ty to home improve­ment prod­uct pur­chase meth­ods. Retail­ers and sup­pli­ers should be mind­ful to watch these quar­ter­ly fig­ures on a year over year basis.

7. Aesthetic Projects Are Driving Product Purchases

Paint and paint sup­plies were the most pur­chased prod­ucts through­out 2024, and peaked in Q4, which high­lights the desire of home­own­ers to make aes­thet­ic and func­tion­al improve­ments to their liv­ing spaces. Oth­er cat­e­gories with sig­nif­i­cant pur­chas­ing activ­i­ty include plumb­ing fix­tures and light­ing fix­tures and controls. 

8. Quality and Price Drive Purchasing Decisions

Home­own­ers place the high­est impor­tance on price and qual­i­ty when select­ing prod­ucts for their home improve­ment needs — as well as where they decide to make their pur­chas­es. Mean­while, prod­uct aes­thet­ics have declined a bit in impor­tance in 2024. In terms of choos­ing a pur­chase chan­nel, 26% of home­own­ers list­ed price as the most influ­en­tial fac­tor and anoth­er 26% felt it was the qual­i­ty of prod­ucts in Q4 of 2024.

A Closer Look at Homeowner Activity, Attitudes, and Decision-Making

To suc­ceed in 2025, you need to know what projects home­own­ers are — and aren’t — com­plet­ing, as well as their antic­i­pat­ed home improve­ment activ­i­ty and evolv­ing chan­nel behav­iors. The Home Improve­ment Research Institute’sQuar­ter­ly Home­own­er Project Activ­i­ty Track­er pro­vides mem­bers with detailed data and insights into these areas, giv­ing prod­uct man­u­fac­tur­ers and retail­ers an under­stand­ing of the dynam­ics shap­ing this sec­tor of the home improve­ment indus­try to inform their strate­gic busi­ness deci­sions in the months ahead. This study is just one of sev­er­al dozen research stud­ies con­duct­ed annu­al­ly by the Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute on behalf of mem­bers. Not yet a mem­ber? Then you’re miss­ing out on unlim­it­ed access to one mil­lion dol­lars worth of home improve­ment spe­cif­ic mar­ket research. Sim­ply sched­ule a con­sul­ta­tion to learn more.