According to a recent Houzz landscaping survey, homeowners are eager to spruce up their landscapes in 2017. Low-maintenance plants, such as salvia, are of interest to 76 percent of outdoor remodelers.

When it comes to landscaping, 2017 is seeing an increase in front yard changes in an effort to stand out from the neighbors.

The 2017 U.S. Houzz Landscaping Trends Survey, which interviewed 1,000 U.S. homeowners planning to, currently involved in or have recently completed, found that just six percent of front yards look very similar to their neighbors after the project is finished. Compare that to just over a third of yards (36 percent) that looked similar to the neighbors before the update. Two in five respondents (41 percent) said their new front yard look is an attempt to “make a statement” and distance their property from their neighbors’.

In most cases, the outdoor improvements focused on the back yard (69 percent). Street-facing spaces were part of 44 percent of improvements.

Why homeowners make these updates has changed in the past year. One third of homeowners (33 percent) freshened up their landscaping because they’d just bought a home and wanted to do something to make it their own. This is up from 25 percent of 2016 respondents who indicated the same reason. More than two out of five respondents (52 percent) said that their last major outdoor renovations occurred more than 10 years ago.

“Home renovation activity is benefiting from the significant increase in home sales in 2015 and 2016, which is reflected in our findings on motivations for starting a landscape project,” says Nino Sitchinava, principal economist at Houzz. “Since housing inventory has remained low, recent homebuyers likely consider their homes less than ideal, leading them to prioritize upgrades like outdoor projects more than ever, with emphasis on low maintenance.”

Other findings from the study include a growing interest in low maintenance plants (76 percent in 2017, up from 67 percent in 2015) and plants that attract birds or insects (52 percent in 2017, up from 41 percent in 2015). The use of edible plants decreased from 41 percent in 2015 to 34 percent in 2017.

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