First 2020 brought a housing boom, and now 2021 is bringing a home-renovation boom.
First-time buyers are more likely to buy fixer-uppers but older homeowners are the ones really spending on DIY.
It s yet another chapter in generational inequality, and another way homeownership is less affordable for millennials.
The other side of the housing boom is here: home-renovation projects.
As Americans were left with more time on their hands and more time in their houses, they began fulfilling their wildest HGTV fantasies. Home improvement and repair spending grew by nearly 3% to $420 billion in 2020, per a recent study by Harvard University s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS).
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Discovery, Inc First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Andrew Slabin, Executive Vice President, Global Investor Strategy. Sir, you may begin.
Andrew Slabin
Executive Vice President, Global Investor Strategy
Everyone, thank you for joining us for Discovery s Q1 earnings call. Joining me today are David Zaslav, President and Chief Executive Officer; Gunnar Wiedenfels, Chief Financial Officer; and JB Perrette, President and CEO of Discovery Networks International. You should have received a copy of our earnings release, but if not feel free to access it on our website at www.corporate.discovery.com. On today s call, we will begin with some opening comments from David and Gunnar and then we ll open the call to take questions. Before we start, I d like to remind you that comments today regarding the company s future business p