Home renovations are eating bigger chunks of the family budget in 2026, and a new Houzz survey shows how your neighbors are finding ways to make the numbers work anyway.

The Houzz 2026 Renovation Trends survey found that 54% of homeowners renovated last year, 52% decorated, and 47% tackled repairs. Median spending held steady at around $20,000. That’s actually a reassuring number if you’ve been watching material prices climb at the hardware store and wondering whether you’re the only one struggling to stretch a renovation dollar.

You’re not. Far from it.

The survey found that the median planned renovation budget for 2026 has dropped to $15,000, compared with $20,000 in 2025. Homeowners are taking on roughly the same kinds of projects but expecting to spend less on them. That gap between what people plan and what things actually cost is where things get interesting.

Three-quarters of homeowners, 75% to be exact, set a budget before starting a project. But nearly two in five, 37%, blew past that number in 2025. Some of that is the classic discovery problem: you pull back a wall and find something nobody planned for. But the Houzz data shows that plenty of overspending is a conscious choice. About 35% of homeowners went over budget because they chose higher-end materials than they originally planned, and 31% expanded the scope of their project midway through. So if you started a kitchen refresh and somehow ended up replacing all the flooring on the main level too, you’re in very good company.

High-end spending, by the way, has not slowed down at the top. Houzz found that the 90th percentile of renovation spending rose to $150,000 in 2025, up 7% from $140,000 in 2024. That figure matches a prior peak seen in 2023. For most suburban families, those numbers live in a different universe. But it does explain why contractors’ schedules seem perpetually jammed.

Timing still drives a lot of renovation decisions. Houzz has tracked this year after year, and 40% of homeowners consistently say that the right moment in time is one of the main triggers that gets a project started. Financial readiness edged up slightly to 36% from 35%, which suggests more people are waiting until the money feels right before swinging a sledgehammer.

So how are people paying for all of this? Credit cards are more common than you might expect. Some 34% of homeowners are using them to finance renovations. That can work fine for smaller jobs where you pay the balance off quickly, but it’s worth having a clear payoff plan before you charge a new bathroom vanity and a tile installation on the same card.

For bigger projects, the picture shifts. When budgets cross $50,000, homeowners lean toward what Houzz calls “diversified funding sources.” About 23% of those homeowners tap home equity loans, and 20% use cash from a home sale. If your family has been building equity over the past several years, a home equity loan can offer a lower interest rate than a credit card and a structured repayment schedule that’s easier to plan around. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has resources that can help you compare borrowing options side by side before you commit to anything.

A few practical things worth keeping in mind as you plan your own projects this spring and summer. Getting multiple contractor bids still matters, even when you trust your usual guy. Material costs vary more than they used to, and a second or third quote can reveal real savings. Building a 15% to 20% contingency into your budget from the start also helps absorb the kind of surprises that push 37% of homeowners over their original number. If you set $20,000 aside and mentally account for a potential $3,000 overrun, an unexpected plumbing issue stings a lot less.

The National Association of Home Builders tracks cost trends by region and project type, which can give you a realistic baseline before you start talking to contractors. A few hours of research before the first estimate arrives can make the whole conversation go a lot smoother.

The Houzz numbers show that suburban homeowners are not pulling back on improving their spaces, even when budgets feel tight. They’re adjusting expectations, spreading costs across different funding tools, and in plenty of cases, deciding midway through that the nicer tile is absolutely worth it.