Homeowners Aware But Not Taking Action With Green Alternatives
ServiceMagic's Second Quarter Index Finds that Convenience, Lifestyle Needs and Modest Spending Levels are Driving Demand
GOLDEN, Colo., Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- In a survey released today, 59 percent of Americans considered green alternatives for their home improvement projects in the last quarter with window energy efficiency being the leading green home improvement project. However, only 19 percent of homeowners surveyed were motivated to conduct home improvement projects because of tax credits. The survey was part of ServiceMagic's Q2 2010 Home Remodeling and Repair Index, which is compiled of data from 1.6 million service requests received through ServiceMagic's online marketplace from May to July of this year as well as results from a survey of over 1,200 homeowners and 500 service professionals conducted in July 2010.
Homeowners Go Green with Windows
When homeowners did go green, they focused largely on window upgrades for the home with an increase in window service requests up 81 percent from last year in the same quarter. Eighty three percent of survey respondents invested in windows for energy reasons with cost saving from increased energy efficiency being the top motivation. Top reasons homeowners did not request energy efficient window systems were that green products were too expensive, the tax credit did not justify the additional expense or they were simply not aware of the tax credit.
Beyond Window Projects, Going Green isn't in Demand
For homeowners who did not consider green alternatives, 50 percent of them were not aware of the green options, while 27 percent did not like the green product choices and 16 percent found the cost of green products outweighed the benefits. Moreover, less than 10 percent of homeowners requested green or energy efficient alternatives for their home improvement projects, as reported by 62 percent of service professionals.
"A surprising trend this quarter is what we are learning about consumer purchasing behavior around green and energy efficiency," said Craig Smith, CEO for ServiceMagic. "While we show a fairly decent level of awareness for green and energy efficient alternatives, it isn't translating to action beyond window projects."
More Data Available
Visit ServiceMagic.com to download the complete Q2 2010 Home Remodeling and Repair Index which includes home improvement regional and city data on home project spending trends, as well as specific categories of projects that have seen increases and decreases as compared to the same quarter in the year prior.
ABOUT SERVICEMAGIC®, INC.
ServiceMagic is the nation's leading website connecting consumers with prescreened, customer-rated service professionals. Since 1999, ServiceMagic has matched millions of consumers with service professionals resulting in billions of dollars in various home improvement projects. Headquartered in Golden, Colorado, ServiceMagic was recently named Colorado Technology Company of the Year and draws nearly four million unique visitors to its website each month. ServiceMagic is an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI).
SOURCE ServiceMagic.com
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