6 Differences Driving Home Improvement Behaviors Among Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers in 2025

It’s no sur­prise that con­sumers of dif­fer­ing ages and in dif­fer­ing life stages have vary­ing pref­er­ences and pur­chase moti­va­tions when it comes to select­ing home improve­ment prod­ucts. Gen­er­a­tional dif­fer­ences can have an effect on all aspects of the pur­chase jour­ney, from pre­ferred shop­ping chan­nels to point of pur­chase con­sid­er­a­tions and post-pur­chase brand loyalties.Additionally, there are coin­cid­ing fac­tors — includ­ing socio-eco­nom­ic sta­tus, home­own­er­ship rates, and dis­pos­able income lev­els — that influ­ence how home­own­ers allo­cate their bud­gets for home improvement.

Generational Trends in Home Improvement Behaviors and Activities

Our Gen­er­a­tional Dif­fer­ences in Home Improve­ment Activ­i­ty Report pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive pic­ture of gen­er­a­tional atti­tudes and behav­iors towards the means by which home improve­ment projects are com­plet­ed, com­par­ing behav­iors across all gen­er­a­tions, from Mil­len­ni­als to the Silent Gen­er­a­tion. Because they com­pose a sig­nif­i­cant­ly small­er per­cent­age of home­own­ers and home buy­ers, Gen Zers are often incor­po­rat­ed into the Mil­len­ni­al demo­graph­ic. Here is a look at some of the key trends that emerged from this analysis:

1. Millennials Lead in Home Improvement Spending

Despite low­er lev­els of home equi­ty and net worth, Mil­len­ni­als lead in annu­al home improve­ment spend­ing, with one in five spend­ing more than $5k on projects. Accord­ing to addi­tion­al data from the Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Real­tors, mil­len­ni­als com­prised the great­est per­cent­age of home­buy­ers in 2024, or 38%; Gen Xers con­tributed anoth­er 24%. Home main­te­nance — which includes rou­tine tasks and activ­i­ties to keep a home in good con­di­tion and pre­vent the need for repairs — is the most com­mon type of home improve­ment project among all home­own­ers. Mil­len­ni­als and Gen X com­plete repairs and ren­o­va­tions at high­er rates than Boomers.When it comes to aver­age home improve­ment spend­ing, each suc­ces­sive gen­er­a­tion spends sig­nif­i­cant­ly less. Gen Xers spend about 12.6% less than Mil­len­ni­als, while Boomers spend approx­i­mate­ly 20.5% less than Gen X. The Silent Gen­er­a­tion spends rough­ly 11.3% less than Boomers, high­light­ing a con­sis­tent down­ward trend in spend­ing as each gen­er­a­tion ages. That’s the aver­age. When we look sep­a­rate­ly at medi­an home improve­ment spend­ing, there’s an even more dis­tinct decline across gen­er­a­tions. Mil­len­ni­als spend about 51% more than Gen X, while Gen X spends 32% more than Boomers. Boomers, in turn, spend around 9% more than the Silent Gen­er­a­tion, reflect­ing a con­sis­tent decrease in spend­ing as each gen­er­a­tion ages.

2. Quality and Price are Highest Priorities for All Generations

When it comes to select­ing prod­ucts and mate­ri­als for home improve­ment projects, qual­i­ty and price are approx­i­mate­ly three times more influ­en­tial than oth­er fac­tors for all gen­er­a­tions. Looks and aes­thet­ics are slight­ly more impor­tant for Gen X and ease of instal­la­tion is a bit more mean­ing­ful to the Boomer/​Silent Gen­er­a­tion. In gen­er­al, mes­sag­ing and mar­ket­ing that focus­es on prod­uct qual­i­ty and prices will res­onate more strong­ly with home­own­ers than oth­er fac­tors. In terms of moti­va­tions for under­tak­ing projects them­selves, Mil­len­ni­als are more heav­i­ly influ­enced by dis­cre­tionary fac­tors such as home enjoy­ment, style, and qual­i­ty of life. These moti­va­tors descend in impor­tance with each sub­se­quent generation.

3. Energy Efficiency Takes Precedence Over Smart and Sustainable Products

Over the years, home­own­ers have become more aware about top­ics like sus­tain­abil­i­ty, ener­gy effi­cien­cy, and smart home prod­ucts—as well as how these con­cepts inter­re­late. How­ev­er, ener­gy effi­cien­cy is by and far the most impor­tant fac­tor when it comes to home improve­ment deci­sion-mak­ing, influ­enc­ing near­ly three-fourths of home­own­ers in each gen­er­a­tion. Select­ing sus­tain­ably built prod­ucts is the sec­ond most impor­tant fac­tor, fol­lowed by smart home inte­gra­tion. Cost sav­ings and com­forts are the pri­ma­ry moti­va­tions, regard­less of demo­graph­ic, for invest­ing in these areas, which implies that val­ue mes­sag­ing will res­onate more than eco-con­scious­ness in pro­mot­ing future ener­gy effi­cient, smart home, and eco-friend­ly home improve­ment products.

4. Millennials Show Higher Preference for Online Channels

Although all gen­er­a­tions use both online and in-per­son meth­ods for home improve­ment, Mil­len­ni­als use online resources the most, rely­ing on them to look up prod­uct research and user reviews more than oth­er gen­er­a­tions. Young home­own­ers engage social media plat­forms sig­nif­i­cant­ly more than oth­er cohorts — or 39%, com­pared to 23% for Gen Xers and 9% for Baby Boomers and the Silent Gen­er­a­tion — lever­ag­ing mobile devices for research and inspi­ra­tion. YouTube, in par­tic­u­lar, remains the dom­i­nant plat­form for these pur­pos­es. Hav­ing a broad­er social media pres­ence can help man­u­fac­tur­ers and retail­ers engage younger home­own­ers. Mean­while, Boomers are the most like­ly to vis­it local home improve­ment stores and rely on rec­om­men­da­tions from friends and fam­i­ly mem­bers. Addi­tion­al­ly, there is a healthy amount of trust that in-store retail­ers car­ry good qual­i­ty prod­ucts, but Mil­len­ni­als are more like­ly to pri­or­i­tize prod­uct details, safe­ty infor­ma­tion, and reviews, before mak­ing a purchase.

5. Millennials Possess Experience and Optimism About DIY

Look­ing ahead to 2025, Mil­len­ni­al opti­mism about home improve­ment is like­ly to sus­tain ongo­ing activ­i­ty. In gen­er­al, they feel more pos­i­tive about start­ing projects — both small­er endeav­ors below $5k and big­ger projects above $5k — and hir­ing a con­trac­tor. Near­ly half of Mil­len­ni­al home­own­ers plan to increase their home improve­ment spend­ing over the next 12 months, com­pared to 37% of Gen Xers and 27% of Boomers. Addi­tion­al­ly, this gen­er­a­tion of home­own­ers pos­sess­es more inter­me­di­ate DIY expe­ri­ence than old­er home­own­ers, which includes tasks like installing hard­wood floor­ing or replac­ing a win­dow. They also are more like­ly to take on addi­tion­al projects as they age.

6. Aging in Place Trends Contribute to Positive Home Improvement Outlook

Aging in place and mul­ti-gen­er­a­tional hous­ing trends are like­ly to fuel increased home improve­ment demand in the years ahead. For exam­ple, in 2024, one-quar­ter of Mil­len­ni­als com­plet­ed an aging in place upgrade, along with 26% of Gen Xers and 29% of the Boomer/​Silent Gen­er­a­tion. About 11% of Mil­len­ni­als also had a fam­i­ly mem­ber move in last year, and we’re see­ing a strong cur­rent of mul­ti-gen­er­a­tional home buy­ing, fueled by cost sav­ings and the need to care for aging par­ents. They are like­ly to dri­ve future home improve­ment projects to accom­mo­date mul­ti­ple fam­i­ly units.

Taking Your Home Improvement Products to Market Among Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers

All that said, there are some gen­er­al prin­ci­ples you can apply in your go-to mar­ket and advertis­ing strate­gies to increase mar­ket pen­e­tra­tion among var­i­ous generations:

Provide Information to Consumers Before Purchase

As the data sug­gest, Mil­len­ni­als espe­cial­ly pri­or­i­tize get­ting prod­uct infor­ma­tion online before pur­chas­ing, and Gen X cus­tomers find val­ue in con­duct­ing online research as well. Man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers should pro­vide detailed infor­ma­tion about how to use their prod­ucts in applic­a­ble projects on their web­sites and through social media plat­forms to sat­is­fy pre-project researchers.Manufacturers and retail­ers can imbue con­tin­ued con­fi­dence in DIY’ing by tak­ing to mar­ket prod­ucts that cater to Mil­len­ni­al and Gen X’s DIY inter­ests and moti­vate them to take on more projects.

Enhance Online Planning Resources

The report sug­gests that age and project plan­ning cor­re­late neg­a­tive­ly, with younger gen­er­a­tions plan­ning more. Man­u­fac­tur­ers and retail­ers can offer online resources, such as project tuto­ri­als and guides, to assist with plan­ning and organizing.Identify which mar­ket­ing touch-points are most attrib­ut­able to the point of sale and be sure to invest in pro­vid­ing a high-val­ue buyer’s jour­ney at those points to increase mar­ket share.

Better Understand Your Home Improvement Product Market

By under­stand­ing key gen­er­a­tional dif­fer­ences and apply­ing learn­ings gleaned from insights, home improve­ment pro­fes­sion­als can cre­ate and mar­ket prod­ucts that appeal to spe­cif­ic age groups while tai­lor­ing their mar­ket­ing and sales strate­gies accordingly.Want to dig into the full Gen­er­a­tional Dif­fer­ences in Home Improve­ment Activ­i­ty Report and tab­u­late the source data specif­i­cal­ly for your own use cas­es? Join HIRI for unlim­it­ed access to our full stores of exclu­sive research.