Making New Year's renovations

A new year brings fresh opportunities to improve all aspects of your life, including your home. For many, resolutions jump-start the motivation to begin (or finally finish) long-awaited home renovation projects. We surveyed 1,005 American homeowners about their renovation plans for 2023 to find out the trends in home renovation. How many homeowners are gearing up for upgrades, and what kinds of projects do they have planned?

Increasing home comfort and value

Home renovations are a big undertaking, whether a small do-it-yourself project like painting a few rooms or a professionally contracted kitchen redesign. What drives homeowners to take on these projects, and what do they hope to gain from their hard work?

    

Eager to improve their living spaces, a shocking 94% of homeowners said they had at least one renovation planned for 2023. Those in rural areas were particularly keen to get their hands dirty, with 98% planning renovations, followed by 94% of urban and 90% of suburban homeowners.

While most homeowners (62%) hoped that planned renovations would increase their home's value, half of them wanted home upgrades to impress their friends (50%) or help sell the house (48%). In fact, 71% of owners with upcoming renovations said they plan to sell their homes in 2023.

However, selling a house may be more difficult in 2023, as economists expect home prices to finally fall after a three-year market surge. Luckily, many sellers are ahead of the curve: 80% of homeowners already completed an improvement project in 2022.

For owners who are just getting started, all is not lost. Those who get their house on the market early in the year might benefit from high selling prices, but owners who enter the market later may enjoy falling mortgage rates and an increase in interested buyers. Whenever sellers enter the market, having a fully or partially renovated home can add value and desirability to a property.

Popular upgrades in unpopulated places

Whether you want to increase the value or comfort of your home, staying on top of design trends can help guide your renovation plans. Where are home renovations the most popular, and what are the latest upgrade trends? We analyzed the search volume for "home renovations" and numerous design trends.

Home renovations trended highest in less populated states, which tracks with our survey data showing that 98% of rural homeowners had renovations planned. The correlation was so strong that our list of states with the most home renovation searches included eight of the 10 least populated states:

10 Popular Search Areas for Home Renovations: Montana, Vermont, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Delaware, Alaska, West Virginia, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming

10 Least Populated States: Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire

As for design trends, clover lawns dominated the field. Searches for clover lawns are expected to grow by 400% in 2023. The increased demand for clover lawns aligns with worries over water shortages, increased environmental awareness, and the growing popularity of minimalist living.

Other popular renovation trends included material upgrades and design styles. In 2023, searches for color blocking will likely increase by 81% and for Zellige tiles by 78%. Interestingly, the contrasting design styles of maximalism (73%) and Japandi (32%) rounded out the top five trends with the most projected search growth.

Some recent renovation trends are on the outs with homeowners and likely to see a decrease in search volume. At the top of the outdated trends list were kitchen pantry additions (-40%) followed by cane webbing (-28%), laminate wood flooring (-24%), pink bathrooms (-21%) and reeded cabinets (-18%). Homeowners hoping to sell a property in 2023 would do well to avoid these renovations.

As homeowners decided which rooms to renovate, the core living spaces of the living room (66%), bedroom (60%) and kitchen (59%) received the most attention. Bathrooms were surprisingly less popular at just 43%, even though they can be a big selling point for prospective buyers. Perhaps homeowners were discouraged by the hefty price tag of most bathroom renovations.

Getting the best return on your (inflated) budget

No matter where you want to renovate, you'll need hefty savings or a knack for DIY to get the job done. With the cost of everything from tools to furniture on the rise, completing home improvements in 2023 will require careful budgeting.

With supply shortages and inflation pushing prices ever higher, home renovation budgets have significantly increased since 2022. Living room budgets (+$1,136) and bathroom budgets (+$1,033) increased the most, while living room upgrades were more popular.

Outside the home, front yard budgets increased by $904 from 2022 to 2023. Based on what else we've seen, this is likely a result of many homeowners switching to clover lawns. Even though clover is affordable, uprooting and reseeding an entire lawn is likely to come with a big price tag.

Luckily, many prospective buyers find value in such upgrades, potentially making for a good return on the investment. Homeowners felt that improvements in the living room, kitchen and bedroom would earn them the best returns. However, if you're looking to renovate for selling purposes, you may want to shift your focus to kitchens, bathrooms, HVAC systems and outdoor spaces.

New homes in the new year

As the new year approaches, homeowners are making resolutions to improve their spaces — especially their living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms. They're also budgeting, collecting design ideas and researching trends. Top among those are quartz countertops, outdoor kitchens, specialty tiles and switching to the immensely popular clover lawn.

While some homeowners are making these upgrades to increase their comfort, many are planning improvements to help sell their homes. Either way, 2023 will be ringing in exciting changes for home renovators.

Methodology

For this study, we surveyed 1,048 American homeowners about their renovation plans, including 824 who took on a project in 2022 and 985 planning to take on a project in 2023. For geographic breakdowns, we had 303 living in rural areas, 207 living in suburban areas, and 538 living in urban areas. We also gathered search data from Google Trends and used keywordtool.io to find out what people were searching for about home renovations. For predicted 2023 values, we used monthly search volume data from November 2022 and calculated a two-month increase with the trending growth or decline in searches for each term.

About Cinch Home Services

With more than 40 years of home industry experience, Cinch Home Services offers award-winning home warranty services. Cinch has a range of plans to fit your needs, a nationwide network of service pros to ensure your repairs get done right, and an industry-leading 180-day workmanship guarantee to back it all up.

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