With the economy still chugging along at a slow pace and the housing market limping along behind it’s no wonder more and more people are staying in their homes longer than ever before. Part of that may be due to the difficulty most people have getting financing and some of it may be due to the lowered confidence many of us have in the current economy.

Regardless the reason many homeowners are tackling small home improvement projects, even some big ones, to make their homes livable longer. As you can see there are many fun and exciting trends in home improvement this year.

Going green was a huge trend last year and will continue to be this year. Smaller renovations are both popular and cost efficient. Making upgrades to the home’s infrastructure (which really just means updating the technology in the home) is a hot trend with today’s builders and remodelers.  The following infographic shows just what the hot trends of 2011 were and what they will continue to be in the year 2012.