October 27, 2022
Sealing the Deal: Trends in Air Tightening of the Building Envelope
As energy codes have become much more stringent on building airtightness, builders and building products manufacturers have scrambled to develop and incorporate new systems and methods to meet the needs. Three years ago, Home Innovation Research Labs introduced the Annual Builder Practices Report for Air Sealing to keep track of what builders were doing in the quickly evolving area. As part of the data-gathering for this report, we’ve asked builders this question in our annual survey.
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September 9, 2021
Why Not Offsite?
I’m often asked why offsite home construction practices, which have been available for half a century or longer, should be expected to gain traction now. Granted, offsite solutions are not right for every project or every builder, but the industry environment seems to be evolving to favor many of these — primarily in light of the current labor and materials supply issues. Additionally, the predominant Millennial homebuying market attaches less negative stigma to factory-built or engineered housing solutions. In fact, Millennials tend to see factory-produced housing as “smarter” and more technologically advanced than traditional methods. So what’s continuing to keep builders from adopting offsite practices?
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August 13, 2021
Survey Says: Accelerating Builder Interest in Modular Home
In late July 2021, Home Innovation conducted a survey of 348 home builders, repeating a question on offsite housing that we asked in similar surveys in August 2019 and September 2020.
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July 9, 2021
A (How It’s) Heated Debate: Gas or Electric? 2021 Update
The debate has continued for years. Gas or Electric? For a new home, the answer often centers on the tradeoffs between short-term affordability vs. long-term operating cost.
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June 28, 2021
Changing Building Materials Preferences in the Post-COVID Housing Market
Earlier this month, Ed Hudson, Home Innovation’s Director of Marketing Research, presented “Changing Preferences for Building Products in a Post-COVID Market” at NAHB’s Leading Suppliers Council Connections meeting. He covered a wide range of findings and trends based on his analysis of long-term building products trend data, and the findings of recent national studies on buying habits of builders and households.
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May 5, 2021
On Point: New Builder Practices Survey Confirms Predicted Growth in Off-Site Construction
There has been a lot of attention devoted to off-site construction technologies over the past decade. Many builders share the opinion that off-site construction is the way homes should be built, but not as many are willing to adopt the practices themselves. Over that same time, our Builder Practices Survey shows that little growth has occurred in the use of these off-site practices listed, with the exception of wall panelization, which has seen growth in multifamily construction.
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April 23, 2021
PVC Opportunities in Residential
Earlier this week, Ed Hudson, Home Innovation’s Director of Marketing Research, presented “Trends and Opportunities for PVC Materials in Home Construction and Remodeling” at the PVC Formulations Virtual Summit, sponsored by AMI. The primary audience for the presentation was manufacturers of PVC materials seeking opportunities to develop new PVC-based building materials.
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April 16, 2021
2020 Hindsight: 2021 Builder Practices Reports Now Available
The year 2020 was characterized by price instability, supply disruptions and shortages, and even mandated business closures in some areas. We also saw an unexpected boost in new housing construction that started early in the year and continued. Considering these factors, we anticipated some changes in building materials purchasing patterns; only some of that anticipation played out.
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April 1, 2021
Where Did We Buy? Purchase Location for Home Remodel Projects
Not all building materials purchase outlets did equally well during the pandemic. As the responses from our latest Consumer Practices Survey came in, we were able to examine who did well, and in which product categories. With this rich data, Home Innovation is introducing the “Purchase Location for Home Remodeling Projects” report to provide market insight for retailers and suppliers of building materials.
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February 18, 2021
Boom or Bust: What Products Did “The Year of DIY” Favor?
The biggest trademark of 2020? Change! This was true in nearly everything that affects how we live in our homes and how we interact with others. Many in the building industry found these changes to be an opportunity; others found it to be a significant threat.
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