8 Trends Impacting Renovations Conducted When Selling/Buying a Home in 2025

A house is one of the most mean­ing­ful pur­chas­es a per­son will make in their life­time. Not only do home­own­ers want their hous­es to reflect the hard work that led up to the pur­chase, but they also often plan to increase the val­ue of their invest­ment (tan­gi­bly and intrin­si­cal­ly) by con­tin­u­ous­ly upgrad­ing fea­tures of their homes to meet their needs. Enter your home improve­ment prod­ucts brand​.It comes as no sur­prise that home­buy­ers and sell­ers make up a sig­nif­i­cant seg­ment of the home improve­ment mar­ket, but what projects are recent home buy­ers and sell­ers plan­ning to under­take, and why? What home improve­ment prod­ucts and mate­ri­als do they most often pur­chase, and where?

Answers to these ques­tions and more can be found in our 2024 Recent Home Buy­ers and Sell­er Report. This report pro­vides a snap­shot into cur­rent trends in pre-sale and post-pur­chase home improve­ment activ­i­ties, includ­ing project types, spend­ing lev­els, and con­trac­tor involve­ment, as well as the tim­ing, moti­va­tions, and expec­ta­tions for improve­ments and ren­o­va­tions, and their influ­ence on the home-sale process. HIRI mem­bers have full access to the report as well as the raw data and tab­u­la­tions. Learn more about HIRI membership.

Renovating Trends Among Homebuyers and Sellers in 2025

As a man­u­fac­tur­er or retail­er, data about cur­rent plan­ning and pur­chas­ing trends can help inform your prod­uct devel­op­ment and mar­ket­ing strate­gies for two high­ly active cus­tomer seg­ments: home­buy­ers and home sellers.Here are some top take­aways cov­er­ing the rela­tion­ship between home­buy­ers and home sell­ers and home improve­ment activities:

1. Rising Competition and Lower Inventory Influence Current Market Trends

In gen­er­al, the num­ber of first-time home buy­ers has also been steadi­ly increas­ing over the past six years, or 61% in 2024 com­pared to 36% in 2018.Last year saw a surge in first-time home buy­ers, often dri­ven by dis­sat­is­fac­tion with rent­ing. Builders have been com­pet­ing aggres­sive­ly to cap­ture first-time home buy­ers with incen­tives and rate buy-downs which con­tribute to nar­row­er price gaps as a result of the lim­it­ed exist­ing home inven­to­ry with­in the hous­ing mar­ket.

About 76% of buy­ers also sold their pre­vi­ous home when mov­ing, com­pared to 42% in 2022. We’ve also observed that buy­ers are pri­or­i­tiz­ing val­ue and neigh­bor­hoods over the charm of old­er homes. When asked why they pur­chased an exist­ing home rather than a new home, about 67% of home­own­ers respond­ed that it was a bet­ter val­ue, or the price was right. About 52% said they liked the neighborhood. 

Notably about 39% said they could fix up the home and add val­ue, which has been an increas­ing trend since 2018.It’s also tak­ing longer for buy­ers to get into a home com­pared to a cou­ple years ago. Because of afford­abil­i­ty con­straints and tight inven­to­ry, search­es length­ened, aver­ag­ing 5.7 months in 2024, up from 3.6 months in 2022.

Strategic Considerations:

In the cur­rent hous­ing land­scape, man­u­fac­tur­ers and retail­ers can focus on pri­or­i­tiz­ing pro­vid­ing afford­able, val­ue-dri­ven home improve­ment solu­tions as pro­longed buy­er search­es and afford­abil­i­ty con­cerns shape demand for future home improvement.

2. The Emergence of Six Key Buyer Groups 

Home pur­chase moti­va­tions in 2024 formed six key buy­er groups: upsiz­ers, down­siz­ers, con­ve­nience seek­ers, space seek­ers, investors, and acces­si­bil­i­ty-focused buy­ers. Although there is some over­lap between these cat­e­gories, the upsiz­ers and upgraders moti­va­tion group applies to the largest con­tin­gent, or 67% percent. 

Down­siz­ers encap­su­lates about 42%, and 39% of buy­ers are look­ing for con­ve­nience fac­tors — such as being clos­er to work or fam​i​ly​.By far, the most com­pelling moti­va­tion for buy­ing was the desire for a bet­ter loca­tion. A third of buy­ers also cit­ed finan­cial moti­va­tions, or the belief that buy­ing was more afford­able than renting.

Strategic Considerations:

Man­u­fac­tur­ers and retail­ers can focus on devel­op­ing and mar­ket­ing prod­ucts that enhance home val­ue, uti­liza­tion of lim­it­ed space, and con­ve­nience, in what­ev­er form that looks like for any giv­en prod­uct cat­e­go­ry. Con­sid­er what it will take to tar­get upsiz­ers and con­ve­nience seek­ers and con­sid­er ways to offer afford­able, flex­i­ble solu­tions for down­siz­ers and acces­si­bil­i­ty-focused buyers.

3. Homebuyers Seeking Out Smaller Homes but Larger Lots

In 2024, homes pur­chased were small­er in square footage, with few­er bed­rooms and baths, than in 2022, reflect­ing afford­abil­i­ty con­straints and shift­ing buy­er pri­or­i­ties. For exam­ple, in 2022, about 41% of the homes had 4+ bed­rooms, com­pared to 33% in 2024. The aver­age square-footage in 2022 was 2,965, com­pared to 2,218 square feet in 2024, show­cas­ing the effects of decreased pur­chas­ing pow­er due to high cost per square foot prices. 

Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, demand for larg­er lots has grown, sig­nal­ing a shift in buy­er pref­er­ences for more out­door space. In 2024, 14% of home­own­ers pur­chased one acre or more of prop­er­ty, com­pared to 10% in pre­vi­ous years, and 19% had .5 to 1 acres, com­pared to 14% in 2022. Buy­ers favor move-in-ready homes, or those that don’t need any major ren­o­va­tions, while about 15% intend­ed to and ulti­mate­ly pur­chased a fix­er-upper home, and 22% end­ed up with a fix­er-upper, even though it wasn’t their intention.

4. DIY Skills on the Rise Among Millennial Homeowners

Since 2022, DIY trends have shift­ed. Novice and inter­me­di­ate skills have gained trac­tion since 2022. We also can observe some gen­er­a­tional trends in terms of DIY pro­fi­cien­cy. In 2024, Mil­len­ni­als out­paced both Gen X and Boomers in report­ing of both advanced and inter­me­di­ate skill lev­els. Boomers were the largest cohort to report being DIY novices (41%) or be non-DIY­ers (14%).

Addi­tion­al­ly, in 2024, Mil­len­ni­als were much more active in four of the top five cur­rent home improve­ment areas — which were full bath­room, half bath­room, kitchen, and bed­room upgrades. Yard, gar­den, or land­scape projects were the one area where Boomers and Gen X home­own­ers invest­ed a sim­i­lar amount of time to improve­ments as Millennials. 

5. Buyers Prioritize Discretionary Upgrades while Home Sellers Focus on Increasing Returns

In 2024, most home­own­ers ren­o­vat­ed with­in the first year of mov­ing to a new res­i­dence, with first-time buy­ers being more active than repeat home­buy­ers. Home­buy­ers focused on dis­cre­tionary upgrades and inte­ri­or ren­o­va­tions to improve longevi­ty and func­tion­al­i­ty, favor­ing home improve­ments to their new­ly acquired kitchens, bath­rooms, and floors, while spe­cial­ized projects required professionals. 

Mean­while, about half of sell­ers made tar­get­ed pre-sale improve­ments to their pre­vi­ous home before putting it on the mar­ket in 2024. They tend to pri­or­i­tize return-dri­ven ren­o­va­tions, empha­siz­ing visu­al appeal and inte­ri­or updates that will increase curb appeal. They have increas­ing­ly aimed for high­er prices and faster sales, with two-thirds com­plet­ing projects in less than three weeks; about 75% met tim­ing expec­ta­tions, fin­ish­ing projects in the expect­ed time­line or quick­er than expected. 

Strategic Considerations:

Your home improve­ment prod­uct mar­ket­ing teams have a high­ly inter­est­ed audi­ence in first-time home­buy­ers that they can tar­get with rel­e­vant adver­tis­ing mar­ket­ing efforts — espe­cial­ly with­in the first year after a home pur­chase — using the find­ings from our 2024 Recent Home Buy­er and Sell­er Report. To cap­ture share of the recent movers cus­tomer base, home improve­ment prod­uct man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers should aim to align prod­uct offer­ings and mar­ket­ing efforts with demand from recent movers for kitchen, bath­room, and floor­ing upgrades.

6. New Homeowners Invest in Long-term Customization

In 2024, home improve­ments remained large­ly moti­vat­ed by dis­cre­tionary fac­tors, with per­son­al­iza­tion ris­ing most since 2022. Most buy­ers — or about two-thirds — plan to stay in their cur­rent homes for more than a decade, and plan projects accord­ing­ly. Near­ly half com­plete their home improve­ment projects on sched­ule. Our research also shows there’s been a sig­nif­i­cant rise in home­own­ers want­i­ng to per­son­al­ize their space. That was a moti­vat­ing fac­tor for 44% of projects in 2024, com­pared to 26% in 2022. This trend is like­ly due to trade offs made through tight mar­ket pur­chas­es and the inten­tion for longer-term stays once prospec­tive home­own­ers find a place to buy. 

Strategic Considerations:

Your build­ing prod­uct man­u­fac­tur­ing and retail­ing teams should con­sid­er cam­paigns geared toward per­son­al­iza­tion, espe­cial­ly among old­er gen­er­a­tions of home­buy­ers, as these cus­tomers are more inclined to invest in long-term cus­tomiza­tion projects.

7. High-Impact Materials in Demand for Both Buyers and Sellers

For both home­buy­ers and home sell­ers, the mate­ri­als most fre­quent­ly pur­chased for their home improve­ment project include high-impact mate­ri­als, like paints, hard­ware, and sealants, caulks, and oth­er adhe­sives. In oth­er prod­uct areas, we see greater divergence. 

• For exam­ple, when it came to floor­ing, 46% pur­chased it to com­plete a project on their cur­rent home, com­pared to only 29% for projects on their pre­vi­ous home. 
• For cab­i­nets, twice as many were acquired for cur­rent home projects than for a project in a pre­vi­ous house. 

Home­own­ers pre­dom­i­nant­ly pur­chased mate­ri­als them­selves, although sell­ers were near­ly twice as like­ly as buy­ers to rely on con­trac­tors for pro­cure­ment. When not rely­ing on pros, home­own­ers heav­i­ly rely on depart­ment and dis­count stores and hard­ware stores How­ev­er, as we wit­nessed in 2024, they’re increas­ing­ly pur­chas­ing their prod­ucts and mate­ri­als from ware­house clubs, spe­cial­ty retail­ers, and hard­ware stores, a shift from 2022. For exam­ple, 39% of home­own­ers uti­lized ware­house clubs in 2022, jump­ing to 80% in 2024. On the oth­er hand, home cen­ters expe­ri­enced a slight decline.

8. Reliance on Consumer Credit Has Grown, Especially Among Millennials

Home­own­ers con­tin­ue rely­ing upon cash and sav­ings, as well as cred­it cards, to fund home improve­ment projects, both for pre­vi­ous and cur­rent homes. Addi­tion­al­ly, there is an increas­ing usage of unse­cured and oth­er con­sumer cred­it sources, such as store cred­it cards and unse­cured loans. In par­tic­u­lar, Mil­len­ni­als are much more like­ly to uti­lize unse­cured fund­ing sources — includ­ing bank and store cred­it cards, unse­cured loans, con­trac­tor-arranged financ­ing, and deferred billing — than old­er homeowners. 

Strategic Considerations:

For man­u­fac­tur­ers and sup­pli­ers and finan­cial stake­hold­ers in hous­ing and home improve­ment, these find­ing can inform your part­ner­ship and cred­it prod­uct strate­gies as HIR­I’s study find­ings indi­cate con­sumers have become more will­ing to take on debt in var­i­ous forms over the past 6 years. 

Utilizing Home Improvement Research for Strategic Decision-Making

Regard­less of whether home improve­ment activ­i­ty hap­pens before a home sale or after (or some time in between), under­stand­ing home buy­er and sell­er behav­iors and moti­va­tions can help home improve­ment retail­ers and mar­keters bet­ter con­nect with those who are seek­ing their prod­ucts and services.This study is part of the 40+ research projects the Home Improve­ment Research Insti­tute con­ducts each year for its mem­bers. Not a mem­ber yet? You’re miss­ing out on unlim­it­ed access to over a mil­lion dol­lars’ worth of home improve­ment mar­ket research. For full access to data from this sur­vey and detailed infor­ma­tion on all home­buyer demo­graphics, join HIRI as a mem­ber today. Sched­ule a con­sul­ta­tion to assess what HIRI mem­ber­ship would mean for your cross-func­tion­al teams.