Nearly Half of All American Homeowners Give a Green Thumbs-Up to Home Improvements

NEW YORK, May 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As spring continues to blossom, a new study from local market consumer research firm Scarborough reveals that of the nearly 164 million homeowners in the United States, nearly half (49 percent) gardened in the past 12 months.

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Gardening Homeowners are 10 percent more likely than all homeowners to be Baby Boomers* and 33 percent have at least a college degree. Forty-seven percent of gardening homeowners hold full-time employment and 26 percent have an annual household income of $100K or more. Twenty-two percent of Gardening Homeowners are retired.

Where do these Gardening Homeowners live? The top local markets for adult homeowners who have gardened in the past 12 months are Seattle, WA (63 percent are homeowners who have gardened); Portland, OR (63 percent); Salt Lake City, UT (62 percent); Milwaukee, MN (58 percent) and Columbus, OH (58 percent). The local markets with the lowest penetration of gardeners among homeowners are St. Louis, MO (43 percent); Mobile, AL (40 percent); West Palm Beach, FL (40 percent); Miami, FL (38 percent) and Las Vegas, NV (37 percent). For the complete list of Gardening Homeowner local markets, see the end of this press release.

Gardening isn't the only home improvement these adults made in the past 12 months. Thirty-one percent of Gardening Homeowners made interior paint or wallpaper improvements and 15 percent of Gardening Homeowners made carpeting or floor covering improvements in the past 12 months. Gardening Homeowners also showed their preferences for other green activities as they are 25 percent more likely than all homeowners to pay more for eco-friendly products and 25 percent more likely than all homeowners to donate money to environmental causes. Gardening Homeowners are 26 percent more likely to buy locally grown food.

Marketers looking to reach Gardening Homeowners will find them spending ample time shopping online. Thirty-seven percent of Gardening Homeowners who access the Internet spend 10 or more hours per week online and those who have made an online purchase in the past year spent, on average, $910. Gardening Homeowners are 23 percent more likely than all internet-enabled homeowners to shop for pet supplies on the internet in the past 12 months, 19 percent more likely to shop for furniture online and 16 percent more likely to shop for health and beauty items online in the past 12 months. Fifty-seven percent of online Gardening Homeowners have engaged in social networking online in the past 12 months.  

Offline, Gardening Homeowners are 11 percent more likely than all homeowners to read the home and garden pages of the newspaper and eight percent more likely to read the food and cooking section. They are eight percent more likely than all homeowners to watch documentaries on television, six percent more likely to watch local morning news, and eight percent more likely to watch reality talent shows. Twenty-seven percent of Gardening Homeowners listen to adult contemporary or news/talk/information radio.

*Scarborough defines the different American generations as Generation Y (age 18-29), Generation X (30-44), Baby Boomers (45-64) and the Silent Generation (65+).

Continue the dialogue with Scarborough over Twitter by reaching out to @ScarboroughInfo using hashtag #HomeImprovements and be sure to visit us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ScarboroughResearch.

This data is from Scarborough USA+, Release 2 2011. Scarborough measures 210,000 adults aged 18+ annually across a wide variety of media, lifestyle, shopping and demographic categories.

About Scarborough Research
Scarborough ([email protected]) measures American life. Our consumer insights reflect shopping patterns, media usage across platforms and lifestyle trends for adults. Media professionals and marketers use Scarborough insights to make smarter marketing/business decisions on things like ad placement, multicultural targeting, and sponsorship opportunities.  The company's core syndicated consumer insight studies in 77 Top‐Tier Markets, its Multi‐Market Study and its national USA+ Study are Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited. Other products and services include Scarborough Mid‐Tier Local Market Studies, Hispanic Studies and Custom Research Solutions. Scarborough measures 2,000 consumer categories and serves a broad client base that includes marketers, advertising agencies, print and electronic media (broadcast and cable television, radio stations), sports teams and leagues and out‐of‐home media companies. Surveying more than 210,000 adults annually, Scarborough is a joint venture between Arbitron Inc. and The Nielsen Company.

SOURCE Scarborough Research