Why Do People Love DIY Home Shows?
By Chris Petry
If you’re a homeowner, you certainly know the ins and outs of homeownership. There are the pluses, like fixed interest rates and loan term limits, ownership-exclusive privileges such as the presence or absence of permanent fixtures and the ability to initiate repairs, renovations and updates on a whim. As well as the ability to build equity and command future capital. There are also the minuses: being financially responsible FOR repairs and upgrades, being responsible for yard work and exterior maintenance, having an individual bill for each utility and having to pay taxes either in escrow as a part of your monthly payment or directly to the county or school district in which you reside.
Homeownership is… complicated. For sure. It’s up to each person to decide whether the benefits outweigh the downsides. A recent poll by Bank of America found that 90% of those polled viewed homeownership as a valuable investment and 53% said they preferred homeownership to renting, outright. In 2025, 2 out 3 households were owned by the inhabitants, with the percentage of Americans who owned their home coming in just over 65%. That’s smack dab in the middle of the international average. Surprisingly, Laos and Romania have the highest rates of private homeownership with numbers coming in just under 96%. Which is better than the UAE where rates stand at 28%, Nigeria with 25%, or Hong Kong, bringing up the rear at just 22.1%. One thing’s for sure: homeownership, despite facing some hurdles in the last few years, is still a dream shared by the majority of humans on planet Earth.
Which might explain the prevalence of shows like Fixer Upper, Property Brothers, House Hunters, Love it or List It, Dream Home Makeover, This Old House, etc. Homes are just interesting to people. It doesn’t matter if they just bought a house, they’re planning to buy a house or they want to in the future. Seeing the aforementioned “ins” and “outs” of homeowner played out in real time with real people… there’s nothing like it.
You don’t have to be Chip and Joanna to get a little DIY on your own abode but because mistakes can be costly, it’s nice to see people who have “been there/done that” explore the territory first. To show YOU, the viewer, what possibilities exist and what can be accomplished within the parameters of each person’s level of experience, budget and housing situation. Even if you’re short on cash or you’ve never picked up a hammer let alone made use of a tile-cutting wet saw, seeing others do it and accomplish tremendous results, might be all the motivation you need to take a crack at it. Or feel more insecure in your ability to do so.
While a novice should NOT attempt to do something as extensive or potentially dangerous as, say, rewiring their home, replacing a support beam, readjusting the foundation or messing around with an old gas line, there’s no harm in taking a stab at minor drywall work, painting, laying carpet or laminate, replacing or refinishing kitchen cabinetry or building shelving. There are so many great tutorials available, both in print and in the form of how-to videos, that almost anyone can do an okay job with enough time, patience and grit.
Of course, the greatest thrill is the whole house makeover. You know, when the show hosts send the person or persons away for like 72 hours while they strip everything down to the studs and rebuild it into something completely unrecognizable. The greater the transformation the greater the spectacle. The greater the spectacle, the higher the public interest. It’s one thing to transform an old Victorian into a modernized McMansion but it’s a whole other level of impressive when you manage to convert an outhouse into the Neuschwanstein.
Despite the fact that there are seemingly more DIYers and flippers out there, traditional home renovation programs have actually seen a decline in viewership over the last several years. It’s not because people have lost interest in DIY or homes in general. Far from it. Despite the challenges in the housing market since Covid, people are more enthusiastic than ever about home programming. It’s just that the medium has changed. Now there are thousands of DIYers highlighting their own projects online, through short form video services like TikTok, Instagram Reels and, of course, YouTube. While TikTok isn’t exactly forthcoming with their viewership numbers, let alone more specific data like demographics and trends, it’s estimated that there are billions of views associated with each specific project hashtag. To summarize, people still love watching others perform radical housing projects. The only change is where they’re now consuming said content.
Whether you’re watching someone sledgehammer walls on public access or in your social media feed, you’re not alone. The audience is more alive than ever. One thing I rarely hear addressed, however, is the reality of pulling off said projects at home. I don’t mean in concept. As we discussed above, a lot of it is very doable. Especially with the aid of these kinds of shows and, dare I say, influencers. What I really mean is: who can afford it without winning a sweepstakes? If you have to take out a home equity loan or a private loan to pay for a major renovation project, why wouldn’t you just go ahead and hire a contractor to ensure the work is done right? Unless you just really want the satisfaction that comes from doing it yourself, risk aside.
The funny part is, the people who can usually afford the risk of a DIY are LESS likely to attempt one. Which might answer the biggest question of all. Perhaps people like to learn to manage these projects on their own because, not only is it self-fulfilling, but it’s more cost effective if you can figure it out. Leave the roof to the professionals but do replace the toilet in the powder room on your lonesome. It’s all about the degree of the risk. That risk, assuming it can be corrected without breaking the bank, might be a thrill in and of itself.
