About 49% of adults have actually made home improvements within the past year. It also came to the conclusion that people living in smaller towns are much more likely to spend money on DIY improvements than those in large cities.



The city where DIY was most popular was in Harrisburg, Penn. In this town over 59% of the population started their own home renovation project within the last year. In buffalo, NY 56% of the population carried out some form of DIY project on their own home.

Other markets which where DIY was popular included Atlanta, Syracuse NY, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Detroit, Flint MI and Rochester NY. Each of these markets has had over half of the population carry out some form of DIY project within the past year.

On the other end of the scale, people living in Honolulu were the least likely to do any DIY projects, only 37% spent any time improving their homes within the past year. Other large cities did less DIY than average, including New York 48%, Chicago 46%, Miami 45%, Las Vegas 40%, and San Diego 42%.

These surveys have suggested that there are quite a few useful opportunities which companies could use when promoting their products.

The study also indicated that there were certain types of home improvement projects which were much more popular than other types. 25% of people carrying out home improvement projects decorated their homes with wallpaper, or landscaped their garden. 2% of people installed a home security system and only 1% installed a pool to their homes. You can see that there are big trends in the types of project which want to be undertaken.

Small projects are becoming increasingly popular, however people are becoming more likely to spend more money when improving their homes. 36% of people renovating their homes spent over $3,000 which is an increase of 6% since 1999.

46% of people that started home improvement projects are middle aged. 63% of these are married, and 55% of people doing DIY projects earn more than $50,000 a year.

Other interesting facts from the report:

-Users of the internet are much more likely to improve their home. Many people who use the internet to buy products and seek advice are more likely to carry out DIY. -Half of the people surveyed remodeled their kitchens by themselves. Four percent of people paid someone to do some of the work for them. Other popular DIY projects included wallpapering, bathroom remodeling, and landscaping. Popular paid projects where professionals were used included installing a home security system, air conditioning and carpets. -If you listen to classical music, new country or sports radio then you are 14% more likely to do home improvement projects.