October 5, 2020
Improved Construction Speed is Primary Benefit Builders Expect from Offsite Construction
During NAHB’s Building Systems Week in late September, I presented “Builder Attitudes Towards Systems-Built Construction,” which summarized the findings of three different recent studies related to builder views and usage of offsite construction methods and factory-built components. Overall, the market is bullish toward use of offsite methods, and some sectors—such as multifamily—have been much quicker to adopt these into housing production.
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July 24, 2020
New Builder Practice Data Regarding Indoor Health and Comfort
With COVID-19 dramatically changing attitudes on how people view housing, there is a strong renewed interest in healthy indoor environmental quality. This is not only due to a desire to keep homes “virus free,” but also because people are spending more time in their homes, so a comfortable and healthy home environment is playing a bigger role in their lives. Findings from our latest Builder Practices Survey, which we fielded among home builders in early 2020, serve as a benchmark for industry practices at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Moving forward, we expect that building practices regarding indoor health and comfort will continue to follow the major change in consumer attitudes about this topic.
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March 27, 2020
Data Scoop: Benchmark Data from Consumer Practices Survey Prior To 2020 Data Release
Ahead of tabulating and announcing the 2020 Consumer Practices Survey (CPS) findings, Home Innovation is releasing some analysis of remodeling activities from our 2019 survey as a baseline for the new data.
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February 5, 2020
What’s Hot (& Cold) in HVAC Systems
A decade ago, most predicted that rising energy costs and more stringent energy efficiency regulations would spell the doom of all-electric heating systems while sparking the market for natural gas and geothermal heating systems. Things haven’t gone as predicted. Why? First, modest energy prices have prevailed, and heating loads for homes has declined dramatically due to improved efficiency of the building envelope. Second, single-family homes are actually getting smaller and they’re more likely to be one-level than two or more. Third, there’s been a surge in “exurb” development, neighborhoods being built outlying large metropolitan areas, away from the city and often without access to piped gas.
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October 24, 2019
When & Where Offsite Construction Technologies Will Emerge
During a presentation at NAHB’s 2019 Building Systems Housing Summit in October, Ed Hudson, Home Innovation Research Labs Director, Market Research, provided insight as to when and where he believes offsite construction technologies are likely to have an impact in the coming years. The data presented were from a survey of home builders Home Innovation conducted in August 2019.
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October 4, 2019
What’s Trending with Vinyl? Insights from Vinyltec® 2019
Earlier this week, Ed Hudson, Director of Market Research for Home Innovation Research Labs, presented at the Society of Plastics Engineers’ 2019 Vinyltec® “Megatrends in Vinyl” Conference in Akron, Ohio. He began with a discussion of several of the major forces driving the home construction and remodeling industries and how these create opportunities and threats, specifically for construction products made of vinyl. Among trends discussed were our changing labor force and demographics; higher costs for materials and lot development; growing demand for increased energy efficiency; and new technology developments.
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July 31, 2019
Stuff It: Consumer Study Reveals Closet & Garage Storage Trends
For the last two years in our Consumer Practices Survey, Home Innovation has asked a detailed set of questions about garage and closet storage purchases. About 2,300 U.S. households reported. Comparing purchase patterns between 2018 and 2019, interesting trends are starting to emerge.
Each year, about 2.3 million U.S. households purchase closet storage systems, including those in bedrooms, laundry rooms, and kitchen pantries. The 2019 study found that about 108 million linear feet of closet and garage storage were installed in U.S. homes. And, while the storage system market is largely a do-it-yourself market currently, we expect professionally installed closet and garage systems to continue to grow in popularity.
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July 22, 2019
Shedding Some Light on New Home Lighting Trends
A quick web search on current trends in lighting will score a lot of hits and a lot of descriptors – “modern,” “metallic,” “industrial,” “eco-friendly,” “natural,” and others. A quick look into Home Innovation’s Annual Builder Practices Report reveals some deeper dimension of lighting trends. For example, there are far more lighting fixtures being installed on new homes now compared to a decade ago, both interior and exterior. Some configurations have seen more growth than others.
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July 15, 2019
Survey Says: 2019 Data Shows Re-Piping Evolution as PE-RT Piping Gains Traction
In a 2016 Trend post, we reported a brisk change underway in the home re-piping market. At that time, CPVC occupied the dominant position, and PEX was in third and gaining ground rapidly; this mirrored the rapid ascent of PEX in the new home piping market from a decade earlier. With the 2019 Consumer Practices Survey (CPS) now complete, we have seen that market continues to evolve in favor of PEX. But there’s also a new material in the mix — PE-RT, or raised-temperature polyethylene, is beginning to make a measurable impact.
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June 19, 2019
Insulation Choices Revealed in New Study
Home Innovation’s 2019 Annual Builder Practices Survey of home builders had more than 1,600 participants this year, completing the detailed questionnaire on the homes they built in 2018. This study helps us track – and predict – trends in the popularity of home styles, features and materials used.
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