AUSTIN, Texas — This summer, Modernize Home Services released its annual Homeowner Sentiment Report findings, resulting from a recent survey of more than 23,000 homeowners. Respondents shared their thoughts on preparing for home improvement projects, budgeting, pain points, and more. 

The 2022 Homeowner Sentiment Report includes a special set of questions regarding homeowner stressors, such as surging prices, a potential recession, supply chain backlogs, and political unrest. The results indicate that 86% of homeowners consider at least one of these factors to be the cause of their stress. Modernize strives to understand how homeowners and their home improvement decisions are being impacted by recent events.

Each year, Modernize conducts an extensive survey of homeowners to provide insight into what drives them to start home improvement projects. These results offer homeowners an insight into how they compare to others considering home improvements and help contractors better understand their customers to best support them. The results are compiled and compared by trade and weighed against previous surveys.

Important Homeowner Insights

• A total of 37% of homeowners plan to spend one to five hours on research before hiring a professional and 43% plan to spend at least six hours on research before hiring.
• A total of 24% of homeowners use home improvement websites like Modernize when researching their upcoming projects.
• The majority of homeowners (83%), across trades, have not created a budget. If they do, they are not confident in it; 73% are either somewhat or not confident at all in their budget. 41% of homeowners with a budget found online articles and tools to be helpful.
• Almost 80% of homeowners would like to finance part, if not all, of their project.
• This year, only 32% of homeowners have had to cancel or pause a project, down from 45% last year. This year, however, the reason for most cancellations (74%) is cost.
• Around 50% of homeowners plan to pursue additional projects in the next six months, up from 38% in January 2021. About 11% plan on spending more than $11,000.
• Almost half of homeowners use recommendations from friends to find a contractor. Social media (8%) is up 2% from last year.
• The majority of homeowners (87%) will compare two or more quotes or bids ahead of selecting a professional.
• The top three factors, other than price, for selecting a contractor for a project are online ratings/reviews, expertise, and references.
• The two top attributes of a contractor's sales process making homeowners least likely to hire him/her are tardiness and lack of communication.

Homeowner Stress Levels Special Report

• Around 61% of homeowners selected that their levels of stress about decisions relating to their home as "more than I can handle" and "a lot of stress, it's tough to manage."
• Homeowners looking to complete a roofing project (75%) with Modernize are the most stressed trade.
• Just over half (57%) of homeowners believe the level of stress today is "somewhat worse" to "much worse" than at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
• Almost 70% of homeowners said the biggest barrier to their home improvement projects is the "high cost of supplies." An additional 14% said it is "coping with managing the whole project."
• Nearly half (45%) of homeowners across trades agreed completely with the statement, "I just feel overwhelmed by everything that would have to be managed for this project."

The Modernize team recently hosted a webinar on July 29 reviewing the survey results. The webinar included participation and expert insight from Cassie Morien, director of strategy and homeowner insights analyst for Modernize; Megan Wolfe, director of client strategy and development for Modernize; Bobby Vickers, chief marketing officer for Brennan Enterprises; and Briana Hetherington, a business consultant for Bath Pros of New Jersey. Industry experts advised how contractors can implement strategies for connecting with customers and mitigating their stressors in the face of inflation and other taxing current events. An exclusive eBook is also available and free to access.