Stress Impeding Home Improvement Projects

Homeowners across North America are feeling stressed and this is impacting their lives in many ways, including making decisions about home improvement projects. In fact, 61 per cent of homeowners state 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 handle,’ says the annual ‘Homeowner Sentiment Report’ by Modernize Home Services. In fact, 57 per cent 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. Homeowners looking to complete a roofing project (75 per cent) are the most stressed. Retailers should take note that homeowners found online articles and tools to be helpful to reduce stress. Almost 70 per cent of homeowners say the biggest barrier to their home improvement project is the ‘high cost of supplies.’ An additional 14 per cent say it is ‘coping with managing the whole project.’ To add to the stress, the majority of homeowners (83 per cent) have not created a budget. If they do, they are not confident in it; 73 per cent are either somewhat or not confident at all in their budget. This year, only 32 per cent of homeowners have had to cancel or pause a project, down from 45 per cent last year. This year, however, the reason for most cancellations (74 per cent) is cost. It also found 50 per cent of homeowners plan to pursue additional projects in the next six months, up from 38 per cent in January 2021. Eleven per cent plan on spending more than $11,000.