Featured Story / December 2024

Homeowners Prioritize Personalization Over Resale Value in Bathroom Renovations

Story courtesy Houzz.com

Houzz Study Finds Median Spend Reaches $15,000; Tile Transforms the Shower.

Houzz Inc., the leading platform for home building, remodeling and design, empowering industry professionals and their clients with all-in-one project management and design software, released the 2024 U.S. Houzz Bathroom Trends Study*. The survey of more than 1,200 respondents found that homeowners are increasingly prioritizing their personal needs during primary bathroom renovations with the share of those focused on resale value dropping by 5 percentage points (26% in 2024 versus 31% in 2023). Additionally, the share of homeowners renovating to make their space more accommodating increased by 4 points, reaching 27%.

Regardless of the motivation, investment in primary bathroom projects continues to climb, up 11% from the previous year ($15,000, compared with $13,500 in 2022), with the top 10% of spend starting at $45,000. Reliance on home professionals also remains high, with more than 4 in 5 homeowners (83%) hiring professionals to assist with their bathroom renovations. General contractors are hired most frequently (46%).

“Consistent with past Houzz research, homeowners are renovating for the long term, making significant investments in functional spaces like primary bathrooms,” said Marine Sargsyan, Houzz staff economist. “While changes to layouts, shower area, flooring and plumbing may be unsurprising, what stands out is the growing trend toward future-proofing homes for personal use and the needs of loved ones. This shift has pushed resale value considerations further down the priority list, as homeowners focus on comfort and long-term living.”

The trends in today’s bathroom renovations reflect homeowners’ prioritization of their own personal interests:

Sustainability: More than four in five homeowners choose sustainable features during primary bathroom renovations (84%). While more than half of owners opt for sustainable design because of environmental friendliness (56%), the majority of homeowners are driven by long-term cost effectiveness (69%).
Aging in place accommodations: Accommodations for aging household members are also supported by long-term renovation goals. Of the 64% of homeowners addressing special needs with their bathroom renovations, nearly half cite the future needs of aging household members (46%, compared with 37% of homeowners addressing current needs).
Wet rooms: More than 1 in 8 renovating homeowners characterize their primary bathroom as a wet room (13%). Known for its open-concept design, a wet room typically has minimal to no enclosure separating the shower or tub from the rest of the bathroom. The top motivations for choosing a wet room include better use of space (66%) and universal design (39%).
Eclectic style: While the top three primary bathroom styles still remain transitional (23%), contemporary (16%) and modern (15%), eclectic style has grown in favor (5%), jumping 2 percentage points year over year, and matching the popularity of farmhouse style, which has held steady at 5% since 2019.
Specialty toilets: More than 2 in 5 homeowners install toilets that are powered by specialty features (41%), over a third of which are built into the toilet (35%). Features include bidet seats (23%), bidet seats with water pressure (21%), self-cleaning functionality (19%), air dryers (17%) and heated seats (17%).

A Deep Dive on Shower Tile Trends

Nearly 9 in 10 homeowners opt for tile when upgrading their shower flooring and walls (87% and 83%, respectively). Ceramic and porcelain are the most common materials for shower surfaces, though some homeowners opt for marble and acrylic.

Shower Walls: The vast majority of shower wall tiles are rectangular (82%), followed at a distance by square (10%) and hexagonal (2%). When it comes to pattern, over a third choose horizontal brick (34%) and another third install vertical or horizontal stacks (21% and 13%, respectively). Nearly 4 in 5 shower walls (79%) have medium to large scale tiles (6 inches to 18 inches).
Shower Floors: When it comes to shower floors, tile shapes are much more diverse and rectangular (28%), hexagonal (23%) and square (22%) are all popular. Layouts are also varied, led by mosaic (19%), brick (17%) and grid (17%) patterns. In contrast to shower walls, the majority of homeowners opt for small tiles on their shower floor (65%), from 1 inch to 4 inches.

Houzz is the leading platform for home remodeling and design, providing an all-in-one software solution for industry professionals and tools for homeowners to update their homes from start to finish. Using Houzz, people can find ideas and inspiration, hire professionals and shop for products.

*The 2024 U.S. Houzz Bathroom Trends Study is a report of homeowners who are in the midst of, are planning or recently completed a bathroom renovation. The online survey was fielded to U.S. Houzz users from June 27 to July 30, 2024. n=1,247. Download the full study here.