Make the Most of your Data Across Every Stage of the M&A hold Period.

Changes to EPA refrigerant rules have prompted both industry support and legal challenges, with manufacturers warning that the interaction between declining supply and continued demand could push refrigerant prices and service costs higher. This is exactly the type of niche regulatory issue we want: a rule change that can directly alter technician economics, repair pricing and customer replacement decisions.

Manufacturers are implementing a broad new round of HVACR increases across equipment, controls, sheet metal, motors, valves and parts. Many increases are in the mid-single digits, but certain categories reach well into double digits. For contractors, the immediate issue is quote validity, inventory purchasing, price pass-through and job-level margin — not headline inflation.

Emerging roofing businesses are reporting a combination of organic growth, acquisitions, strong backlogs and higher labor and material pricing. For owners and investors, the data is a reminder to distinguish true unit/volume growth from price-driven revenue and acquisition-driven growth when benchmarking competitors or considering valuations.

Overall housing starts jumped in June, but the underlying picture was much less robust for the single-family market: single-family starts edged lower while permits fell again. For home services operators, slower new-home construction can shift more economic activity toward the enormous installed base of existing homes, while softer permitting also provides an important signal for businesses exposed to new construction demand.
The Census data show overall starts rising 19% to a 1.427 million annualized rate, while single-family starts slipped 0.2% and single-family permits declined 2.4%.

America’s housing stock is older than ever, creating a growing pipeline of essential repair and replacement work across roofing, siding, windows, insulation, HVAC, plumbing and other core home systems. The opportunity for home services companies is substantial, but affordability constraints could increasingly shape which projects get done, how they are financed and how contractors position essential versus discretionary work.

Professional remodeling activity continued to expand in the second quarter, but the pace of growth weakened as higher costs and consumer uncertainty put additional pressure on the market. For home services and remodeling businesses, the signal is not necessarily collapsing demand, but a more selective customer—making lead quality, pricing discipline, conversion and job-level profitability increasingly important.

Lower energy prices provided some relief in June, but the broader cost environment for residential construction and repair remains challenging, with building material prices continuing to rise. Home services leaders should be watching category-level inflation closely, particularly in roofing and lumber, as material volatility can quickly affect estimating, job profitability and the ability to hold quoted pricing.

Data center and infrastructure projects are pulling electricians and HVAC technicians away from home services, especially in smaller markets. As labor shifts toward higher-paying projects, capacity and technician retention have become strategic issues—not just operational ones—and are key areas buyers scrutinize during due diligence.

Robotics technician demand is up 107% and industrial automation roles have grown 51% over the same period, according to a Randstad analysis of more than 50 million job postings. Wages are climbing in step, with advertised pay for HVAC engineers up 10 to 15% over the past four years as the labor shortage deepens. For home services operators, that means technician retention, ramp up time, and capacity planning are now front and center in the deals sophisticated buyers are underwriting.