07/19
To Home Improve or Home Maintain?
Throughout our lives, we’ve been taught the difference between wanting versus needing.
Do I need this $4 cup of coffee?
If you do, we’re not telling on you – we promise.
But it looks like a new survey shows that most homeowners are interested in home improvement/remodeling projects more than they are in tackling not so flashy home maintenance projects.
HomeAdvisor found that homeowners spent $3.70 less for every year since a home was built – meaning that an owner of a 50-year-old home would spend an average of $185 less on emergency home maintenance projects per year than an owner of a newer home.
Homeowners are more likely to spend more on home improvement projects rather than home maintenance projects – for every $1 spend on home maintenance, homeowners spent an average of $5 on home improvement projects.
It looks like millennials were the biggest generation to complete home projects in order to increase their home’s value. Baby Boomers and Generation Xers were more inclined to “modernize” their homes.
While room remodels seem to be the more popular home improvement project, owners spent an average of $9,081 on home improvement, maintenance, and emergencies for 2018. Spending on home services has increased 17% in 2018 from 2017.
Many experts strongly recommend saving 1% of your home’s value every year for emergency repairs. A homeowner with a $360,000 home would save $3,600 per year, or $300 per month.