HIRI Monthly Tracker Update: Current Challenges for Pros

If the state of the home improve­ment prod­ucts cat­e­go­ry mat­ters to you and your brand, it’s impor­tant to con­sid­er a vari­ety of fac­tors. For exam­ple, while the con­sumer (or the per­son choos­ing to take on a home improve­ment project) is a key stake­hold­er, the pro­fes­sion­al con­trac­tor hired to do the job is equal­ly crit­i­cal. That’s why the Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute teamed up with The Farnsworth Group to track chang­ing sen­ti­ments among pro­fes­sion­als in the home improve­ment business. 

In our most recent­ly released we found that COVID-19 con­cerns and mate­r­i­al avail­abil­i­ty were the two most promi­nent pain points affect­ing pros this Jan­u­ary. How­ev­er, some pos­i­tive fac­tors in the mar­ket are keep­ing pros feel­ing safe and secure for the time being.

Near­ly half of pro­fes­sion­als dealt with job delays through­out the first month of 2022, up to 49% from the rel­a­tive­ly steady rate of 35% observed since the end of last sum­mer. The pan­dem­ic is the main cul­prit for the increase, as oth­er report­ed caus­es have remained con­stant dur­ing the same timeframe.

To add to the above woes, mate­r­i­al short­ages are believed not to improve any­time soon. In fact, 44% of pros report­ed ​“severe” or ​“mod­er­ate” mate­r­i­al short­ages, up from 36% one month ago. Lum­ber and build­ing mate­ri­als remain the tough­est prod­uct cat­e­gories when it comes to sup­ply chain issues — and the length of mate­r­i­al delays is ris­ing again, with 11% claim­ing delays of more than a month.

On the bright side, although scarci­ty has caused prices to rise, costs have not pre­sent­ed any new chal­lenges to those who are pass­ing addi­tion­al price increas­es to their cus­tomers. And, with the demand for con­trac­tors so high, most pros do not find them­selves in imme­di­ate risk of los­ing jobs due to price increas­es.

Our Pro Track­er will con­tin­u­al­ly relay con­trac­tor sen­ti­ment from the field every month. Join HIRI to get instant access to the full reports as they are released.