Home Innovation Insights

Insider insights on what's going on in the home building industry.

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April 22, 2020

Building Product R&D During COVID-19 Pandemic: Full Steam Ahead or On Hold?

In theory, business disruptions, even one as unexpected and drastic as COVID-19, can spur innovation in an industry as companies adapt to overcome new challenges to their economic viability. However, reality often favors the opposite end of the spectrum, where companies opt to retrench, preserve cash, and focus on short-term, revenue-generating functions as they prepare for a potential protracted downturn. This tactic likely results in reallocating dollars away from R&D and market expansion efforts. And, since these activities are generally associated with a company’s innovativeness – and further, its long-term health and viability – the chasm between the theoretical benefits and harsh reality of major disruptions widens.

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Tagged:
Building Products, Marketing, Building Practices, Homebuyer Preferences, Data and Trends

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April 17, 2020

Focus Shift: Builders’ Views on Skilled Labor Shortage Change in the Face of COVID-19 Crisis

One of the hottest topics in the industry press prior to March of this year was the ongoing and growing shortage of skilled construction labor. The coverage reflected the perceptions of home builders across the country as they faced this daunting issue and its effects on their businesses. Over the past few weeks, however, with builder confidence about future sales dropping sharply in response to COVID-19, we felt it was time for us to re-assess the labor environment as a builder priority.

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Tagged:
Building Products, Marketing, Building Practices, Homebuyer Preferences, Data and Trends

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April 13, 2020

Manufacturer Mindset: Finding Solutions to Today’s Moisture Issues

Moisture control and dehumidification are increasingly hot topics among residential builders and property managers in hot-humid climates. Home Innovation's Cindy Wasser recently spoke with a couple of our manufacturer partners with NGBS Green Certified Products to learn more about the industry trends they’re seeing, and the solutions their companies are implementing to ensure energy-efficient green homes maintain proper moisture and humidity.

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Tagged:
Green Building, Building Practices, Building Products, Energy Performance

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April 9, 2020

Discrete Choice in Qualitative Research—A Powerful Way to Determine the “Why” of Decision Dynamics

Most researchers associate discrete choice methodologies with surveys where the objective is to measure the “What” of buyer preference. But in qualitative research, where exploration is a common objective, discrete choice methodology can be applied to better understand the “Why” of decision dynamics and to identify what tradeoffs buyers are making when choosing building products or services. Home Innovation offers clients this powerful way to explore decision making through discrete choice qualitative research.

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Tagged:
Data and Trends, Survey Research, Building Products, Marketing, Building Practices

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April 2, 2020

Which to Pick? Energy Efficiency vs. IAQ

Growing interest in Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) have some believing it will soon rival Energy Efficiency in consumers' housing-related decision making. So we put it to the test, adding a question to our 2020 Consumer Practices Survey. Take a look at my summary of what we found.

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Tagged:
Building Products, Marketing, Building Practices, Homebuyer Preferences, Data and Trends