August 9, 2017
You Complete Me: New Homebuyer Remodeling Activities May Surprise You
Each year, Home Innovation Research Labs surveys more than 100,000 U.S. and Canadian households and get very detailed information on their home remodeling, repairs, and upgrades. You may assume that most remodeling or home improvement activities are conducted primarily by those who’ve either been in their house a long time and are looking for/need a change, or those who recently bought an existing home and want to do things to make it more “their own.” Our robust consumer data challenges that assumption.
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July 14, 2017
Market Education Key to Market Domination
There’s a mystery surrounding wood floor joists in new homes that keeps getting deeper—literally! In 2004, more than half of wood floor joists in new homes were 10 inches or less deep. Now, more than 60 percent are 12 inches or deeper.
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June 23, 2017
Market for Building Materials: Moving Towards the Middle?
The housing rebound continues, but its effect hasn’t been evenly distributed across the spectrum of housing types and price-points. In 2006, Multifamily represented only 16% of residential starts but surged to 35% of starts in 2015, bringing a new character to the market for home building materials. In 2016, however, while we saw a modest return to pre-2006 markets when Move-up and Starter homes ruled, Multifamily began inching its way back down from its peak the year before.
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June 5, 2017
Insulation Usage Patterns Linked to Home Type, Pricepoint, Geography, and Builder Size
Like most data points in the building industry, insulation material usage varies widely by geographic area, the size and type of builder, and types of homes. The national survey of builders we conducted in February, 2017 sheds further light on usage patterns—confirming some stereotypes about insulation usage in new homes, but it also seems to refute others, lending insight into the market for insulation materials and systems.
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May 19, 2017
New Survey Data:
Quartz Becoming the New Granite?
The results of Home Innovation’s annual survey of 110,000 U.S. households are in. Helped by declining prices in recent years (and the fact that Mother Nature knows how to produce some beautiful countertop material), granite is still the best-selling kitchen countertop by a sizeable margin – accounting for about 40% of home countertop replacements in 2016.
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May 4, 2017
The Thick of It: Home Building Trends in Foam Sheathing Thickness
Recently, I shared results from our builder survey on foam wall sheathing and how its use varied by builder type, price point and type of home, and geographic areas. Now I’d like to share a few things we learned about usage patterns in thickness of foam sheathing in the same survey.
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November 15, 2016
Big Changes Underway in Whole-House Re-Piping Market
While we're all happy to see the rebound of the housing market underway, smart companies aren't just watching the volume of housing starts, but also the mix of home types built. In many ways, the mix can have a bigger impact on building materials purchased than does the total number of new homes.
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September 15, 2016
Flooring Material Trends
Over the past 12 years, Home Innovation has been closely tracking the many changes in the popularity of flooring types in new homes. The biggest winners have been Solid Hardwood and Engineered Hardwood. While carpeting still remains the leader, it has fallen from 60% to 40% overall share. Vinyl flooring has also lost much of its former market share—primarily sheet vinyl—but vinyl has received a boost from the growing popularity of the luxury vinyl tile market. The market for ceramic tile in new homes has increased modestly over the past decade.
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July 1, 2016
Housing Mix is as Important As Volume
While we're all happy to see the rebound of the housing market underway, smart companies aren't just watching the volume of housing starts, but also the mix of home types built. In many ways, the mix can have a bigger impact on building materials purchased than does the total number of new homes.
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May 20, 2016
What's Up (or Down?) in New U.S. Homes?
Keeping up-to-date is critical in order to capitalize on trends and avoid being stung when your product category takes an unexpected dive. Data from our 2016 Builder Practices Reports shows some changes underway that you need to know.
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