2017 Home Improvement Survey: See the top planned projects and budgets

2017 Home Improvement Survey: See the top planned projects and budgets

If you’re planning a substantial home improvement project this year, you’re not alone. Every year we conduct a survey by Harris Poll to see how homeowners are planning to invest in their homes in the year ahead. Here’s some of what we uncovered in our fourth annual survey:

• More than half (59 percent) of homeowners are planning to spend money on home improvement projects in 2017
  Forty-two percent aim to spend $5,000 or more, and nearly a quarter (23 percent) plan to spend $10,000 or more – the highest percentage since the inaugural study in 2014¹.
• Outdoor living remodeling continues to dominate as the number-one home improvement project, with 41 percent investing in outdoor projects such as decks, patios or landscape renovations.
• Home repairs/technology (32 percent), bathroom updates (28 percent) and kitchen remodels (24 percent) round out the top four projects
  Pool installation experienced a survey high of seven percent², a 40 percent increase since 2016³. Both garages and barns also made the list of projects important to homeowners this year (14% and 4% respectively).
• Jumping from last to first, homeowners in the West are seeing major growth, with 64 percent planning home improvement projects in 2017, a 10 percent increase since 2016⁴. Sixty-one percent of homeowners in the South, and more than half of homeowners in the Midwest and Northeast (56 percent for both), also plan to spend money on renovations this year.

See our infographic below for more details.

About the 2017 Home Improvement Survey

This year’s survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of LightStream from January 26-30, 2017 among 3,172 U.S. adults ages 18 and older (2,092 homeowners ages 18+, among whom 1,238 plan to spend money on home improvements in 2017). The 2016 survey was conducted from February 1-3, 2016 among 2,048 U.S. adults ages 18 and older (1,258 are homeowners) ages 18+, among whom 763 plan to spend money on home improvements in 2016. The 2015 survey was conducted from February 6-10, 2015 among 2, 015 U.S. adults ages 18 and older (1,279 are homeowners) ages 18+, among whom 693 plan to spend money on home improvements in 2015. The 2014 survey was conducted from March 6-10, 2014 among 1,291 homeowners ages 18+, among whom 684 plan to spend money on home improvements in 2014. These online surveys are not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Julie Olian, 858-232-0386.

SOURCE: SunTrust Banks, Inc.

HARRIS POLL DATA

¹ 22% in 2016; 18% in 2015; 20% in 2014

² 5% in 2016; 4% in 2015; 5% in 2014

³ Calculation: (7% – 5%) / 5% / 100

⁴ Calculation: (64% – 58%) / 58% / 100

February 2015 LightStream survey conducted online by Harris Poll among 693 homeowners planning to spend on home improvements in 2015.

February 2016 LightStream survey conducted online by Harris Poll among 787 homeowners planning to spend on home improvements in 2016.

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