Nearly 60% of homeowners surveyed are putting off home repairs due to cost

Homeowners may be able to save money by delaying home repairs and reducing home improvement spending, but they probably don’t have as much control over the cost of their homeowners insurance. Most (81%) respondents reported being at least a little stressed by rising homeowners insurance costs.

According to the survey, 52% of homeowners saw an increase in their homeowners insurance premiums despite 58% of them not changing their coverage plans.

Of those who did make a change to their homeowners’ insurance policy, 51% increased their coverage, while 31% shopped around for a different provider. The most significant driving factor for changing the policy was cost, with 57% saying they made a change because of rising premiums. 

Where homeowners are spending less on improvements

Homeowners are often trying to reel in home improvement spending. Earlier this year, another Today’s Homeowner survey revealed that many homeowners planned to cut back on home improvement spending for 2023 due to inflation and the economic climate.

In four states — Connecticut, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Nebraska — more than 60% of respondents said they would be reducing their home improvement spending. Even in Vermont, where the fewest number of homeowners planned to lower spending, 30% still aimed to spend less on home improvements this year compared to years past.

Both surveys made it clear that money is a main concern: Most U.S. homeowners are spending less on home improvement and home repair projects in 2023 due to the overall economic climate and rising insurance premiums.

Methodology

Home Repair Survey: We surveyed 1,000 homeowners about the state of their homes, unfinished repairs, and rising homeowner’s insurance premiums in September 2023. Using raw survey data, we weighted responses to align them with population demographics across age, gender, and income status to represent all U.S. adults. The margin of error for this study is +/- 3% with 95% confidence.

Inflation Survey: Today’s Homeowner surveyed roughly 3,700 American homeowners using a third-party platform to better understand their home improvement plans for 2023. Survey data for this report was collected in January 2023.

This story was produced by Today’s Homeowner and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.