New Angie’s List Survey Predicts Home Improvement Trends For 2015

According to a new survey from Angie’s List, home improvement contractors have high hopes for 2015.

Last November, the local business review website surveyed over 1,000 highly rated companies that specialize in home improvement, asking how homeowners’ budget expectations had changed, and about the home remodeling trends that will be big in 2015.

“We asked contractors what their conversations with customers were showing, and 62 percent of them say their customers aren’t just wanting to make improvements next year, they’re willing to spend more on them than customers spent in 2014,” said Angie Hicks, the founder of Angie’s List. “More than half of the contractors said customers were planning to add $5,000 to what the average project cost last year.”

The survey, the results of which were released last month, found that 17% of customers are planning to spend $15,000 more on home improvements in 2015 than they did in 2014; 9% plan on spending between $10,000 and $15,000 more; 23% plan to spend between $5,000 to $10,000 more; and the majority — 51% — plan to spend between $1,000 to $5,000 more.

As for what home improvements are going to be big in 2015, the survey found that kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and lighting projects are expected to be pretty popular this year. Specifically, it seems that customers are asking for bigger closets and pantries, and new tile around showers and tubs. Fiberglass, it seems, is out.

“We’d been hearing occasionally that homeowners are getting tired of cleaning the fingerprints and smears off stainless steel appliances,” said Hicks. “The survey, however, showed 70% of contractors think the shiny stuff is still in — and several of them mentioned fingerprints are worse in lower quality products.”

The move towards higher end remodels makes sense, as high-quality bathroom and kitchen improvements yield the highest return on investments. Often times, they’re in the 80% range.

Hicks did, however, warn homeowners not to over do things.

“Don’t go overboard and price yourself out of the neighborhood,” she advised. “You want to keep up with the Joneses, not wildly outpace them.”