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HIRI’s 2026 Home Improvement Insights Summit, held Sept. 29-30 in Minneapolis, examined economic pressures, home improvement spending, customer behavior, market research and sales channels. Presentations cited AI use in renovation planning and a forecast that the home improvement products market will grow 2.5% in current dollars in 2026, but contract 1.5% after inflation.
The Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) held its 2026 Home Improvement Insights Summit in Minneapolis on Sept. 29-30, where industry speakers reviewed economic conditions, customer behavior, market forecasts and artificial intelligence’s growing role in renovation decisions. HIRI’s forecast presented at the event projects the home improvement products market will grow 2.5% in current dollars in 2026, while shrinking 1.5% after inflation.
The summit organized its sessions around five themes: macroeconomics, the customer journey, data and market research, project spending, and sales channels. The program included researchers, economists, trade and retail figures, and home improvement media representatives. Its range of topics reflected the questions facing companies as they assess demand: how household finances shape purchases, where customers get advice, and whether nominal sales growth translates into real expansion.
Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington, assistant vice president for forecasting and analysis at the National Association of Home Builders, opened with a discussion of inflation and other economic factors affecting homebuilding and homebuying. She noted that the median age of a first-time homebuyer is now 40, compared with 29 in 1981. The source report does not provide further detail on the calculation or the factors behind that change.
HIRI’s Dave King joined Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at OpenBrand, and Michael Zdinak, director at S&P Global, for a discussion of home affordability, mortgage rates and income and their effects on buyers. The summit also heard from Grant Farnsworth, president of The Farnsworth Group, on contractor sentiment. Findings from the Q2 2026 Quarterly Contractor Business Sentiment Tracker and the Farnsworth Contractor Index for Q3 put contractors’ confidence in getting business over the next six months at 8.2 out of 10.
AI and Inflation Shape Demand
The figures presented at the summit point to a market in which headline sales growth and inflation-adjusted performance differ. A 2.5% increase in current-dollar market size does not mean the volume of products or purchasing power is rising; HIRI’s forecast instead shows a 1.5% contraction after inflation. For manufacturers and retailers, that distinction can affect how they read demand and plan for the coming year.
Customer decisions are also changing as homeowners weigh project costs and use more sources of advice. Liza Hausman, Houzz’s senior vice president of marketing, said 22% of homeowners use AI for renovation and that 25% of renovation dollars are in households that use AI to help. Those figures suggest AI is becoming part of the renovation process, but they do not establish that it causes higher spending or better project outcomes. The reported contractor confidence score, meanwhile, offers a separate indication of near-term business expectations.
King’s message to manufacturers was to reduce uncertainty for customers in the coming quarter. That focus matters in a market shaped by affordability concerns and differing signals from nominal and inflation-adjusted forecasts. Clear information and dependable recommendations may help customers make project decisions, while businesses will still need to respond to actual demand rather than treating conference findings as a guarantee of future sales.
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Five Themes Framed the Summit
HIRI’s event brought together research and industry perspectives rather than announcing a new regulation, product launch or policy change. Its stated purpose was to share industry data and insights across the home improvement market. The sessions addressed both household-level decisions, such as buying and renovating, and business questions about channels, project spending and market size.
One customer-journey discussion featured Kevin O’Connor, host of This Old House, on how the brand maintains relevance. According to the report, O’Connor described an approach built on earning trust by educating audiences first, avoiding errors and not appearing transactional. The account provides a view into the brand’s stated strategy, rather than independent evidence measuring its effect.
The event’s forecasts and indicators have different scopes and timeframes. The contractor sentiment score concerns confidence in obtaining business during the next six months; the market forecast covers 2026 and distinguishes current dollars from inflation-adjusted results. The AI figures concern homeowners and renovation spending, as presented in Houzz research. These measures should not be combined as if they describe the same population or outcome.
“22% of homeowners use AI for renovation, and 25% of renovation dollars sit in households that use AI to help.”
— Liza Hausman, senior vice president of marketing at Houzz
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Limits of the Reported Findings
The published recap does not provide the full datasets, methodology or uncertainty ranges behind the market forecast, buyer-age comparison, AI figures or contractor sentiment score. It also does not identify the exact survey samples or explain how “use AI” was defined in the Houzz research. The reported figures can be attributed to the speakers and research cited, but the recap alone does not allow readers to independently evaluate their methods.
It remains unclear how the forecast will compare with final 2026 results, whether the contractor confidence score will translate into realized work, and how AI use may affect project budgets or outcomes. The source report also does not specify which economic factors contributed most to the projected inflation-adjusted contraction.
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Watch Results Through 2027
The immediate next step is to compare HIRI’s 2026 forecast with subsequent market data as the year progresses and results become available. The summit report also points to continued attention to contractor sentiment, customer purchasing behavior and AI use in renovation planning. Those indicators may help show whether the patterns discussed in Minneapolis persist beyond the event.
King framed the coming quarter as a period for manufacturers to make customer decisions less uncertain, while HIRI emphasized growth as the industry looks toward 2027. The recap does not announce a specific follow-up report date or a new policy decision. Readers should treat future updates to the market forecast and the underlying research as the next evidence needed to assess whether the summit’s outlook is borne out.
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Key Questions
What happened at HIRI’s 2026 Summit?
HIRI held its Home Improvement Insights Summit in Minneapolis on Sept. 29-30, 2026. Sessions covered economic conditions, customer behavior, data and research, project spending, and sales channels.
What did HIRI forecast for the home improvement products market?
HIRI’s forecast cited at the summit projected 2.5% growth in current dollars in 2026, alongside a 1.5% decline after inflation.
How many homeowners use AI for renovation?
Houzz senior vice president Liza Hausman said the company’s 2026 research found that 22% of homeowners use AI for renovation. The report also said 25% of renovation dollars are in households that use AI to help.
What did the contractor sentiment index show?
The Farnsworth Contractor Index for Q3 2026 put contractors’ confidence in getting business over the next six months at 8.2 out of 10, according to the summit recap.
What remains uncertain about the summit’s findings?
The recap does not include full research methods, survey samples or forecast uncertainty ranges. It is also not yet clear whether the projections and sentiment measures will match final market results.
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