70% Of Americans Prefer Do-It-Yourself Home Improvements

NEW YORK, May 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new nationwide survey conducted by TheStreet 's (NASDAQ: TST) MainStreet.com and GfK¹,  70% of Americans prefer the do-it-yourself route when embarking on home improvements with three out of four Americans paying for these home improvements in cash.

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According to MainStreet.com's personal finance editor, Ross Kenneth Urken, homeowners are finding social media and online resources, such as Houzz, helpful in planning allowing them to forego the interior design route which tends to be more expensive and use businesses in their area to source materials for their work.

Survey findings:

• For homeowners planning their next improvement project the top five areas they plan to focus on  are: garden or landscaping (22%); bathroom (14%); kitchen (12%); family/living room (12%); and deck or patio (11%).
• 35% of Americans spend between $1,000-$4,999 on projects; 23% spend less than $500; 22% spend between $500-$999; and 12% spend more than $5,000 annually

Read Urken's commentary on the results here.

¹ GfK Custom Research North America, May 2013

About the Survey
Results contained in this report are based on a survey conducted by TheStreet and GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications. Telephone interviews were conducted from May 17-19, 2013 among a total of 1,000 adult Americans. The margin of error for this study is +/- 3 percentage points for the sample.

About TheStreet

TheStreet, Inc. (www.t.st) is the leading independent digital financial media company providing business and financial news, investing ideas and analysis to personal and institutional investors worldwide.  The Company's portfolio of business and personal finance brands includes: TheStreet, RealMoney, RealMoney Pro, Stockpickr, Action Alerts PLUS, Options Profits, MainStreet and Rate-Watch. To learn more, visit www.thestreet.com.  The Deal, the Company's institutional business, provides intraday coverage of mergers and acquisitions and all other changes in corporate control.  To learn more, visit www.thedeal.com.

Contact:

Erin Corcoran
TheStreet, Inc.
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SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.