Home Improvement Market Trends That You Should Know

Homeowners and DIY home improvement lovers alike may want to stay on top of current home improvement market trends to find their next project or prepare for some supplies to be harder to get as home improvement workers clamor to get the same materials. Some homeowners may see researching home improvement trends for the current market as a waste of time or a boring use of their spare energy. Still, if you want to know what other homeowners are doing to boost the resale value and efficiency of their properties, you should look into these trends every so often to avoid being left behind if you decide to sell your house soon.

Although some home improvement market trends like certain decorating styles or materials may be obvious, others might be subtle and difficult to quantify with research. Even if you’ve been a homeowner for a long time and you think you’ve seen every market trend possible for home improvement, there’s always a possibility that you’ll be surprised if you take a look at what modern homeowners prioritize when improving their homes. Naturally, market trends are just one part of the picture when you’re deciding how to strategically sell your home for more than the asking price, so you should factor home improvement trends with other advice that you receive from real estate agents and related professionals before you decide to start tearing down walls or building up new structures to stay on the edge of innovation.

Follow Your Heart Before Market Trends

As a new homeowner, you might be in the mode of “keeping up with the Joneses” and want to do everything that everyone else is doing. While it’s understandable that you’ll want your home to fit in with other houses on the block and stay up to the standards set forth by a homeowner’s association, it’s okay to sit some trends out if they don’t speak to you. Even though some trends are sparked by necessity or practicality, many trends have to do with personal preference and style. While you may want your home to look appealing to the average buyer, you should still follow your heart and your gut when it comes to making decisions about how you’ll fix your home.

For those who tend to go against the grain, exploring market trends for alternative homes can be a great way to compromise between chasing popular trends and keeping your home relevant for a specific type of home buyer. If you love certain subcultures or styles, you can tailor your home improvement decisions to match what those audiences might like. What’s more, you can always change something if it no longer suits your sensibilities in the future so you don’t need to renovate your home as if this will be the last remodeling job it ever undergoes.

How to Find Market Trends for Home Improvement

You don’t need to be a real estate agent or market researcher to find information about common market trends for home improvement. Anyone can research market trends as long as they have access to the internet and a few hours to sacrifice for the cause. Something as simple as looking up home improvement market trends on the internet or social media can provide useful information that can shape how you care for your home, improve your space, and prepare to sell your home when the time comes.

Some aspects of market trends for home improvement involve trends that can make your home more valuable. For example, to preserve the integrity of the walls, some homeowners are investing in applying a protective wallcovering that keeps dirt and damage off the walls. Other market trends may have to do with increasing the value of the home by replacing low-budget materials with high-value materials. Those who have made the transition from vinyl tile floors to hardwood floors will know that luxurious materials can have lasting impacts on the overall value of a property if you’re willing to part with the original materials.

Replace a Water Heater

Over time, water heaters may be less efficient at heating the water or experience damage that renders them unsafe to use. If you notice leaking around where the water heater is located, it may be time to call a water heater company to check it out regardless of what trends the home improvement industry’s market is seeing at this moment. For those who have larger families and households than they did a few years ago, updating the size of a water heater can be a useful way to follow home improvement market trends while benefitting your household.

Account for Flooding

Don’t wait until you need to call an emergency flood service to prepare your home for a flooding emergency. Flooding can cause damage to the home. Depending on where you live, you may find that some home improvement market trends reflect higher instances of flooding and follow the trends to keep your family safe.

Since many homeowner’s insurance policies do not cover damage related to flooding, preventing flood damage can be a vital part of saving money throughout the year. No one wants to come home to water damage or key aspects of the home’s exterior on the ground thanks to heavy rains. If you worry about the impact that flooding may have on your home, you should try to take advantage of a nice day and improve the gutter along with other parts of your home that manage the flow of water from precipitation.

Update the Septic System

An old septic system can be a host of home problems waiting to happen if you don’t address it. Before you consider replacing a septic system, you should have a local septic system company evaluate whether there are things that you can do to improve your current system without replacing it. Even if replacing a septic system is part of current home improvement market trends, you don’t need to jump on the bandwagon until it’s time to replace yours.

Check the Plumbing

In older homes, pipes that contain lead and other contaminants need to be replaced to keep those who live in those places safe. That’s why one of the present home improvement market trends is updating plumbing systems. Although it can be expensive to take out old plumbing systems and replace them with safer options for pipes, skilled local plumbers can make this process less of a headache than it has to be.

Depending on how old your house is, you might not have to worry about the pipes containing contaminants and harmful materials. Still, if you suspect that your home’s plumbing system produces water that isn’t safe to use or drink, you should get your water tested. After you receive the results from the water testing, you can consult with a local plumber to see if there’s anything that they can do to improve the quality of your water without rendering your plumbing system useless for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Raise the Roof

Replacing a roof is something that you should do every two to three decades as a homeowner regardless of what the current home improvement market trends may be. Still, many homeowners of older homes are waking up to the fact that they need to replace their roofs if it’s been decades since the previous homeowners replaced them. If you’re not financially ready to replace your roof, you can ask a roofing service what they can do to stretch the lifespan of the roof out for a bit so you can save more money to cover the cost of materials and labor for that project.

Another home improvement trend related to roofing is installing solar panels to convert the home to run on solar energy. If you’ve always been interested in solar energy, now may be a great time to take yourself up on that interest and install solar panels. Since some counties and states are offering financial incentives or financial help to install solar panels, it may be a better time than ever to take the plunge into solar power.

Redo the Pavement

Another one of the more common home improvement market trends that homeowners are seeing today is redoing the pavement on their driveways. Although there was a time when driveways were more about function than fashion, some homeowners are enjoying creative designs for their driveways or paying more attention to hardscaping around the driveway to improve its appearance as a whole. If you have a gravel driveway and you want to convert it to a pavement driveway, you shouldn’t try to do this task on your own. Consulting with a concrete cutting company before you attempt to pave your driveway can save you money in the long run by ensuring that you don’t get in over your head on a project that requires professional help as a DIY home improvement enthusiast.

Before you commit to laying down an asphalt driveway, you should find alternative parking until it is done. Since asphalt can take some time to cure, you shouldn’t expect to park in your driveway as soon as the pavers leave the job site. If you don’t have options for alternative parking on your street, you can ask neighbors if they would be willing to let you store your vehicle in their driveway or garage until the project is done.

Switch Roofing Materials

When you’re not ready to replace your roof, another one of the home improvement market trends that might apply to your situation is changing the materials of the roof. If you have an addition on your home or a part of your property that is not connected to the rest of it, that may be the perfect spot to test out a new material like a metal roof before you commit to using it for the whole house. Even if you can’t test out new materials before you use them on your home, you can ask your roofers for examples of homes that have the type of roof you desire nearby so you can get an idea of what it would look like. You can also see if they have portfolios of previous jobs, which may give you an idea of what the result may be like once it’s all said and done.

Control the Home’s Climate

As temperatures rise around the world, one of the more common home improvement market trends that researchers see is an increase in AC usage. When you plan on using your air conditioner more than ever, it’s a good idea to ensure that you have an efficient system that’s easy to use and reliable. The last thing you want to face in sweltering heat is an HVAC system that needs to be repaired on the hottest day of the year.

To avoid snags in air conditioning and heating, you should have a qualified HVAC service professional perform an inspection on your HVAC system as often as indicated by the manufacturer. Some older systems may need to be inspected more often to account for a higher degree of wear and tear. Additionally, more technical systems may need a more experienced HVAC professional to inspect and repair them.

Market Trends Matter to an Extent

Although some home improvement trends like decor and making your home’s exterior luxurious are more glamorous than others, you can benefit from reviewing market trends for home improvement regularly if you intend to sell your home one day. While the market changes all the time, this information can influence decisions that you make to improve your home today, tomorrow, and a year from now. If a trend doesn’t speak to you, you don’t have to follow it but it can make it easier to understand why every home in your area might be doing the same thing with remodeling choices.

To conclude, some folks may be more interested in chasing home improvement market trends than others. Homeownership requires making choices that feel good to you while making decisions that are best for your home. Even if trends come and go, the satisfaction that comes from owning your home and improving it as you see fit remains. Market trends simply provide ideas to folks who own a home and want to improve it.