DENVER — 2022 has marked “a return to more normal home spending patterns,” with an increase in spending from 2019 and 2020 and a decline from 2021 – which was likely “an outlier” that spurred unusually high demand in both projects and home services spending.
That’s the key conclusion of the “2022 State of Home Spending” report issued by Angi, the Denver-based home services website.
“Spending by U.S. homeowners this year was higher than pre-pandemic years, with homeowners across the country continuing to heavily invest in their homes and take on home-improvement, maintenance and emergency work,” said Angie Hicks, chief customer officer for Angi.
“The enduring trend of the pandemic era is all about making your home customized to fit your needs,” Hicks said, adding that a vast majority of surveyed homeowners said they value their homes now more than before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our homes now have a different value, providing us with more than a financial return,” Hicks said. “This shift in the ‘value’ of our homes will have a lasting impact on home improvement moving forward.”
Representing one of the biggest shifts since the start of the pandemic, the top reason for completing a home improvement project was to make the home better suit lifestyle needs, according to Angi. The second-most common reason was to get personal enjoyment out of an outdated home. Prior to the start of the pandemic, return on investment or other financial reasons were consistently the top motivator for improvement spending.
Homeowners who invested in home improvement undertook an average of 3.2 projects, a number that was nearly flat compared to the previous year, Angi said. The top three most-popular projects of 2022 were regular maintenance (38%), interior painting (34%), and bathroom remodels (29%), Angi officials added.