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Home sales have been a hot topic throughout much of the year. Aside from the short drop due to COVID-19 lockdowns this spring, home purchasing has exploded, showing growth rates more than 20% in recent months compared to last year.

There isn’t one way to define “normal” in 2020, especially when it comes to home improvement industry trends. Even though our collective reality looks different than it did this time last year, home improvement companies need a way to measure what’s happening in the industry, so that they can make decisions about their business with confidence.

This year’s HIRI Summit was, like most conferences and events in 2020, held a little differently — though that didn’t take away from the wealth of knowledge the panel of experts imparted.

Home-basing is a term coined by Trusted Media Brands and refers to the act of staying home and creating experiences there, as opposed to going out on the town. This trend has become especially popular with quarantines and stay-at-home orders in place around the country this year.

To measure the current economic climate and understand purchasing behavior in home improvement, the COVID-19 Impact Tracker was developed and used to research consumer purchases from home improvement stores by the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) in partnership with The Farnsworth Group.

HIRI's Size of the Home Improvement Products Market is the home improvement industry’s only product focused size of market study providing data back to 1992 with 5 year forecasts for the consumer and professional markets.

As this is an unprecedented time, we have been working diligently to provide this essential home improvement research to better understand COVID influence on home improvement and equip our members with the knowledge they need to forecast and prepare for future business.

A few purchasing trends have changed significantly, especially with DIY projects and research around home improvement products. If you’re selling to DIYers and home improvement contractors, there are a few things to note when it comes to selling your product during the current COVID crisis.

Offered by the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) in partnership with Kantar Futures, the Future of Home Improvement study aims to identify how consumer trends will influence products and services that homeowners will demand in the next two to five years.