DIY-Who does the most of it?
If you are interested in learning about who is doing home improvements, a recent study by the research firm Scarborough and reported by Arbitron, a media service gave a detailed account of this information. It provides some excellent writings on woodworking patterns to help you know where the trends are, or a hardware store looking where to advertise.First of all, the survey showed that residents of small towns spend more on home improvement than residents of urban areas. The first ranked city in this type of spending is Harrisburg, Pa. where 59% of the homeowners had a project done to improve their home last year. The runners up were Buffalo, in New York State, and Toledo, Oh. at 56%, Flint, MI, Atlanta, Ga., Syracuse and Rochester, (once again in New York State) Indianapolis, In. and Cincinnati, Oh. at 55%.
Who is at the other end of the scales, and NOT doing home improvements? Honolulu, Ha. had the least amount of home improvements at 37%, placing them at number 37 in the overall survey. As mentioned, large cities usually had the lesser number of home improvements: Fresno, CA. (40%), Las Vegas, Ne. (40%), New York, N.Y. (48%), Chicago, Il. (46%), Miami, Fl. (45%), Los Angeles, Ca. (44%), Washington, District of Colombia (44%) San Francisco (43%) and San Diego (42%) both in California.
There are great prospects for businesses in the home improvement industry is the conclusion that can be drawn from these studies. To assure success in their advertising, they can target the individual markets and demographics of the peopel who are doing most of the purchases for home improvement projects These studies done by a highly respected market research firm such as Scarborough allow advertisers to specifically observe the purchasing pattterns in the markets they are interested in. There are two benefits: no more shot gun advertising wasted on poor target audiences, and focusin on market targets that may not be the most obvious.
Knowing which kinds of home improvements were done may also be important to this market and it was learned that 25% of the homeowners had the home interior wallpapered or painted or had some landscaping work done. The least popular kind of home improvements were installing a security system for the home, (2%) or a pool or spa put in the home (1%).
The study found that although most of the home improvements were small in nature, the average amount spent was sizable, with 36% (compared to 30% in 1999) spending over $3,000.
Demographics were also studied, and the biggest part of the residents who spent money on improving their homes were between 35 and 54 of age (46%). Not surprisingly, 63% were married and more than half of them had household total incomes of over $50,000 p.a. (55%).
Some of the other findings of the study that may be of interest to business groups were: -People who use the Internet were most likely to make improvements to their homes. Here is an example: consumers who spent over $1,000 on line were 19% more likely to begin home projects. A further fact was that those who use Internet auction sites, for example to get information on autos or financial information improve their homes 18 to 20% more than the average consumer. -Kitchen remodelling was much more likely to be done as a do it yourself project (53%) than hiring a contractor to do it (4%). The other jobs home owners tended to do themselves were painting or wallpapering the interior (78%), landscaping (76%), and remodel the bathroom (61%). ON the other hand,
Homeowners were more likely to hire professionals to install a security systems for their homes (81%), install a heat system or air conditioning system (76%) and lay down carpets or other kinds of flooring (63%).
And here is an odd fact: consumers who listened to the following types of music turned out to be 13% more prone than the average home owner to do home improvements: all sports radio, new country music, seventies music and classic hits.
About the Author
Being very passionate about projects and plans, Linden Walhard edited quite a few papers in this particular area. You might come across his writings on woodworking patterns at http://www.insidewoodworking.com and many different sources for woodworking patterns information.