Kitchen & Bath Business - July/August 2020 - 28

RESEARCH ROUNDUP

Expected timeframe to start
working on projects again

Similarly, medium and large projects suffered the
biggest losses, with spending predicted to decrease
by 22 percent compared to prior expectations.
Spending on smaller projects is anticipated to decline
by a relatively milder 14 percent.
For projects that continued through the pandemic,
designers were less likely to be used, at a rate of
25 percent compared to 38 percent pre-COVID-19.
Homeowners who continued with remodeling
projects during the pandemic lockdown did so at
lower price points and were more likely to use do-ityourself (DIY) labor.

Postponed

Cancelled

30%
70% of homeowners expect to resume this year
(corresponds to an 83% of spending originally planned for 2020)

25%
20%
15%
10%
5%

POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES

Consumers cited a number of reasons for delaying
or cancelling projects during the crisis. Among
these, they pointed to fewer resources, fear of outsiders coming into their homes, limited access
to industry professionals, store and showroom
closures, reduced income and fear of job loss as
hurdles to home improvement. More than one
in four homeowners (28 percent) cited limited
finances as an impact of COVID-19 on remodeling plans.
At the same time, however, there were bright
spots for the K&B industry. For starters, consumers spending more time at home are realizing
the projects they want to tackle. They also have
more free time; expenditures are decreasing in
other areas, like vacations, and there's a greater
opportunity for DIY work and a renewed focus
on home projects.
SHOW ME THE MONEY

More than six in 10 homeowners (64 percent) still
use cash from savings to finance a kitchen or bath
remodeling project. Active projects in mid-April
were more likely to be paid by credit card (19 percent) compared to deferred projects (13 percent),
and deferred projects were far more likely to be
financed with a home equity loan (11 percent,
compared to 2 percent of active projects).
The kitchen and bath market tends to recover
more quickly than other indicators in times of economic uncertainty, and it is intimately tied to the
housing market. A strong housing market often
leads to healthy remodeling growth,and applications
to purchase a home are once again on the rise after
a major decline at the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
Applications are still below pre-pandemic levels,
but with mortgage rates 1 percent lower than they
were in 2019, there are positive signs for consumer
spending ahead.
NEW THINKING

Nearly one-third (31 percent) of Americans say
the pandemic has changed the way they use or
think about their kitchen or bath, particularly

28
26-28_KBB_0720_ResearchRoundup.indd 28

All Deferred Projects

0%
April

May

June

July

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

Source: John Burns Real Estate Consulting LLC (Data: Apr-20, Pub: June 2020)
Question was asked only of those homeowners who indicated that their project was impacted by COVID-19.

Next
Year/
2021

No
Plan/
Unsure

Besides project delays and cancellations, other impacts of COVID-19 on
remodeling households included:
Our finances/budget
became more limited

Project materials were
not available
We had more downtime
to pursue do-it-yourself
(DIY) work

Scope of project was reduced

Became more involved in
project design/planning

Source: John Burns Real Estate Consulting
LLC (Data: Apr-20, Pub: June 2020)
Includes all homeowners whose project was
in any way impacted by COVID-19 among
those who were actively working on, completed or who had postponed a project.

with an increasing focus on sanitation, quality, function and design. That
number increases to 38 percent when at least one member of the household
is working from home. When asked if they wanted to undertake renovation
work in their kitchen or bath in response to the pandemic, 19 percent of
households with at least one member working from home said yes, while
16 percent of all households and 11 percent of those in which no one works
from home agreed.
This Market Outlook Update contains data on numerous other segments,
including spending by product categories, budgets, motivations and obstacles,
spending by budget size, age of home and much more. To obtain a copy of
the report, visit store.nkba.org and click on NKBA Research Reports. This
report is free to NKBA members and $499 for non-NKBA members. 

/ JULY-AUG. 2020 / KBBONLINE.COM / The official publication of NKBA (NKBA.org) and KBIS (KBIS.com)

7/13/20 8:58 PM

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Kitchen & Bath Business - July/August 2020

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