Houzz & Home Survey Shows Americans Prefer Renovation than Moving into a New Home

Houzz & Home recently conducted its third annual survey with results showing that 66% of homeowners within the United States who are currently remodeling their properties actually plan to live in their home for a long time. Remodeling is usually done to increase the value of the home once it is put up in the real estate market to be resold and this is what these homeowners are doing. However, they also indicated that they won’t be moving out in their recently renovated homes within the next five years.

The survey had 135,000 participants within the U.S. The survey was conducted worldwide with 190,000 respondents. The survey took on historical and planned projects and studied the reasons for remodeling, the impact on the resale value and decorating plans for the remodeled home. It was conducted within the Houzz website which receives more than 20 million unique users every month. From this data, Houzz was able to examine the priorities and spending patterns within national, regional and metropolitan levels.

According to the survey, 74% believed that local housing has improved and 19% of the respondents said that it was less challenging to get funding for their renovations this year. Among those who are experiencing better real estate sales, 42% of the homeowners are planning to renovate their homes and only 16% are looking forward to moving out within the next two years.

According to Liza Hausman, Community for Houzz vice president, homeowners are renovating their homes because they want to stay in them, thus the investment is not only motivated by financial factor but also of emotional ones. Housman also said that with better funding this year, homeowners are remodeling their residences to cater to their current and long term needs.

Results of the survey showed that bathrooms and kitchens get the highest priority when it comes to remodeling. An entire renovation project could last from half a year to an entire year depending on the scope of the projects. Most homeowners also opt to hire professionals such as general contractors (52%). When renovating, 76% of homeowners prefer to retain existing home features that were done from their last renovation.