{
  "dataset": "How much Americans spend on home improvement, by source",
  "url": "https://husky-digital.com/research/home-improvement-spending/",
  "published": "2026-09-09",
  "lastVerified": "2026-09-09",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — reuse with attribution and a link",
  "publisher": "Husky Digital",
  "method": [
    "Sources: Harvard JCHS's Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA, the July 2026 release) and Improving America's Housing 2025 press release for improvement-and-repair spending on owner-occupied homes; the U.S. Census Bureau's Monthly Construction Spending (C30) release for July 2026 for the combined new-construction-plus-improvements residential total; the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey news release (December 2025, covering 2024) for the 'owned dwellings' household spending line; the NAR/NARI 2025 Remodeling Impact Report for total market size, Joy Score, and cost-recovery figures; and Zonda's 38th annual Cost vs. Value Report for project-level job-cost and resale-value data.",
    "The JCHS and Census PDFs, plus the JCHS blog and BLS's PDF endpoint, refused every automated fetch attempt (Cloudflare's bot check on jchs.harvard.edu, a 403 on bls.gov) — those seven JCHS rows plus the Census and BLS rows are marked 'verification: manual' because a person opened each one directly (via a real browser session for the Cloudflare- and BLS-blocked pages) and read the number off the page or PDF, not because the figure is in doubt.",
    "The two Zonda rows initially failed an automated re-check because the draft quote used pipe characters to represent a table row that, on the actual PR Newswire page, renders as plain space-separated text. Re-opening the release and reading the live HTML confirmed both figures are genuinely on the page; the quotes were rewritten to match the source's actual wording exactly, with no change to either dollar figure. Angi's headline dollar figures, an isolated 'improvement-only' Census figure, and a maintenance-only BLS subcategory were all excluded because none of those numbers could be located, undisguised, on a page either publisher actually operates."
  ],
  "rows": [
    {
      "id": "lira-improvement-spending-mid-2027",
      "metric": "Projected U.S. spending on home improvements and repairs (JCHS LIRA forecast)",
      "value": "$519 billion",
      "valueNumeric": 519,
      "unit": "USD billions, annualized",
      "period": "Forecast for mid-2027, released July 23, 2026",
      "source": {
        "name": "Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) — Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA)",
        "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/remodeling-spending-poised-further-slowdown",
        "type": "academic"
      },
      "quote": "Growth in remodeling permitting and retail spending on building products have flattened recently, suggesting that renovation activity is cooling. Our forecast suggests this will lead to a third straight quarter of decelerating year-over-year growth, with spending projected to be $519 billion through mid-2027.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "LIRA counts only maintenance and improvement spending on owner-occupied homes — it excludes new construction and any spending on rental, vacant, or seasonal properties. This is a rolling model forecast, revised every quarter, not a measured actual."
    },
    {
      "id": "lira-yoy-growth-q2-2027",
      "metric": "Projected year-over-year growth in home-improvement and repair spending",
      "value": "0.5%",
      "valueNumeric": 0.5,
      "unit": "percent, year-over-year",
      "period": "Q2 2027 forecast, released July 23, 2026",
      "source": {
        "name": "Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) — Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA)",
        "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/remodeling-spending-poised-further-slowdown",
        "type": "academic"
      },
      "quote": "Year-over-year growth in renovation and repair spending is expected to slow to just 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2027.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "This is nominal growth, not adjusted for inflation, and it covers the same owner-occupied-only universe as the LIRA total above — no rentals, no new construction. JCHS's own May 2026 release described a comparable growth rate as \"positive in nominal terms but ... less than overall inflation.\""
    },
    {
      "id": "jchs-improvement-spending-2019-2022",
      "metric": "Actual (not forecast) U.S. home improvement and repair spending, 2019 vs. 2022",
      "value": "$611 billion (2022), up from $404 billion (2019)",
      "valueNumeric": 611,
      "unit": "USD billions, annual",
      "period": "2019 and 2022",
      "source": {
        "name": "Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America's Housing 2025",
        "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/interactive-item/files/Harvard_JCHS_Improving_Americas_Housing_2025_Press_Release.pdf",
        "type": "academic"
      },
      "quote": "Home improvement and repair spending vaulted from $404 billion in 2019 to $611 billion in 2022, and is expected to remain above $600 billion through 2025.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "Owner-occupied homes only, benchmarked to the biennial American Housing Survey — this excludes rental, vacant, and seasonal properties as well as any new construction. It's the historical base the quarterly LIRA forecasts above are built from."
    },
    {
      "id": "jchs-avg-homeowner-spend-2023",
      "metric": "Average amount an individual homeowner spent on improvements",
      "value": "almost $4,700",
      "valueNumeric": 4700,
      "unit": "USD per homeowner, annual",
      "period": "2023",
      "source": {
        "name": "Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America's Housing 2025",
        "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/interactive-item/files/Harvard_JCHS_Improving_Americas_Housing_2025_Press_Release.pdf",
        "type": "academic"
      },
      "quote": "On average, homeowners spent almost $4,700 on improvements in 2023, nearly 9 percent above the previous market boom in 2007.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "A per-homeowner average across every owner-occupied home, including the many that spent nothing that year — not a per-project cost, not a median, and it says nothing about rental units."
    },
    {
      "id": "jchs-replacement-share-2023",
      "metric": "Share of homeowner improvement spending going to replacement projects (roofing, windows, HVAC)",
      "value": "49%",
      "valueNumeric": 49,
      "unit": "percent of improvement expenditures",
      "period": "2023",
      "source": {
        "name": "Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America's Housing 2025",
        "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/interactive-item/files/Harvard_JCHS_Improving_Americas_Housing_2025_Press_Release.pdf",
        "type": "academic"
      },
      "quote": "Homeowners remain focused on replacement projects such as roofing, windows, and HVAC, accounting for 49 percent of improvement expenditures in 2023.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "A share of dollars spent by owners on their own homes, not a share of project counts and not counting anything landlords spend on rental units — big-ticket replacement categories can dominate total spend without being the most frequent job type."
    },
    {
      "id": "jchs-disaster-repair-spending",
      "metric": "National spending on disaster-related home repairs, two-year totals",
      "value": "$49 billion (2022–2023), up from $16 billion (2002–2003)",
      "valueNumeric": 49,
      "unit": "USD billions, 2-year total",
      "period": "2022–2023 vs. 2002–2003",
      "source": {
        "name": "Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America's Housing 2025",
        "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/interactive-item/files/Harvard_JCHS_Improving_Americas_Housing_2025_Press_Release.pdf",
        "type": "academic"
      },
      "quote": "The growing frequency and intensity of hazard events like hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding have increased spending for disaster repairs to $49 billion in 2022–2023, an astonishing leap from $16 billion in 2002–2003.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "A two-year total within the same owner-occupied-only universe as the JCHS rows above, not an annual figure and not counting disaster repairs landlords make to rental property — it's a subset of the overall improvement-and-repair spending reported there."
    },
    {
      "id": "jchs-energy-improvement-spending-2023",
      "metric": "National spending on home improvements affecting energy use",
      "value": "$139 billion",
      "valueNumeric": 139,
      "unit": "USD billions, annual",
      "period": "2023",
      "source": {
        "name": "Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America's Housing 2025",
        "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/interactive-item/files/Harvard_JCHS_Improving_Americas_Housing_2025_Press_Release.pdf",
        "type": "academic"
      },
      "quote": "In 2023, homeowners also spent $139 billion on improvements impacting home energy use, nearly four times the amount in 2003.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "Covers any improvement with an effect on energy use — HVAC, insulation, windows — on owner-occupied homes only, not spending narrowly earmarked as 'green' or rebate-qualified, and not rental properties."
    },
    {
      "id": "nar-total-remodeling-2024",
      "metric": "Estimated total U.S. spending on home remodeling projects",
      "value": "$603 billion",
      "valueNumeric": 603,
      "unit": "USD billions, annual",
      "period": "2024",
      "source": {
        "name": "National Association of Realtors® (NAR) and National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), 2025 Remodeling Impact Report",
        "url": "https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/top-remodeling-projects-for-homeowner-satisfaction-and-cost-recovery-revealed-in-nar-report",
        "type": "industry-survey"
      },
      "quote": "Americans spent an estimated $603 billion on home remodeling projects in 2024.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "script",
      "note": "NAR/NARI calls this an estimate without stating in this release exactly what it covers — whether it's owner-occupied only or all residential property, and whether DIY spending is included. Treat it as directional market size, not a precisely scoped figure; see disagreements for how it compares with Census and JCHS."
    },
    {
      "id": "nar-joy-score-2025",
      "metric": "Top homeowner-reported satisfaction ('Joy Score') after completing specific remodeling projects",
      "value": "10 out of 10 (primary bedroom suite, kitchen upgrade, new roofing)",
      "valueNumeric": 10,
      "unit": "Joy Score, 1–10 scale",
      "period": "2025 report",
      "source": {
        "name": "National Association of Realtors® (NAR) and National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), 2025 Remodeling Impact Report",
        "url": "https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/top-remodeling-projects-for-homeowner-satisfaction-and-cost-recovery-revealed-in-nar-report",
        "type": "industry-survey"
      },
      "quote": "the remodeling projects that received the highest Joy Scores – a ranking from 1 to 10 based on the happiness homeowners reported upon completion – include the addition of a primary bedroom suite (10), a kitchen upgrade (10) and new roofing (10)",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "script",
      "note": "A homeowner-survey satisfaction metric NAR/NARI designed itself, covering owner-occupied homes — it is not a resale-value or ROI measure, says nothing about rental property, and can diverge sharply from the cost-recovery percentage for the same project below."
    },
    {
      "id": "nar-cost-recovery-top-projects-2025",
      "metric": "Estimated cost-recovery percentage for the highest-recovering remodeling projects at resale",
      "value": "100% (new steel front door), 83% (closet renovation), 80% (new fiberglass front door)",
      "valueNumeric": 100,
      "unit": "percent of project cost recovered at resale",
      "period": "2025 report",
      "source": {
        "name": "National Association of Realtors® (NAR) and National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI), 2025 Remodeling Impact Report",
        "url": "https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/top-remodeling-projects-for-homeowner-satisfaction-and-cost-recovery-revealed-in-nar-report",
        "type": "industry-survey"
      },
      "quote": "the remodeling projects with the highest cost recovery – as estimated by members of NARI – include a new steel front door (100%), closet renovation (83%) and new fiberglass front door (80%)",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "script",
      "note": "Cost recovery here is NARI members' own estimate of resale value added divided by project cost, for owner-occupied homes sold on the open market — not an appraisal, not a study of actual closed sales, not rental property, and a different methodology from Zonda's Cost vs. Value figures below."
    },
    {
      "id": "zonda-garage-door-roi-2025",
      "metric": "National average job cost vs. resale value added, garage door replacement",
      "value": "$4,672 job cost / $12,507 value at sale (267.7% cost recouped)",
      "valueNumeric": 267.7,
      "unit": "percent of job cost recouped at resale",
      "period": "2025, 38th annual report, published September 18, 2025",
      "source": {
        "name": "Zonda, 2025 Cost vs. Value Report",
        "url": "https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zondas-38th-annual-cost-vs-value-report-confirms-exterior-projects-continue-to-deliver-the-highest-roi-302559084.html",
        "type": "industry-survey"
      },
      "quote": "Garage Door Replacement $4,672 $12,507 267.7 %",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "script",
      "note": "A national average across the report's tracked markets (Zonda/Verisk's XactRemodel estimating tool plus surveys of real estate professionals, 28 project types across 119 local U.S. markets), for owner-occupied homes being resold — actual cost and resale value swing a lot by region and price tier, and this excludes landlord-owned rental property entirely."
    },
    {
      "id": "zonda-steel-entry-door-roi-2025",
      "metric": "National average job cost vs. resale value added, steel entry door replacement",
      "value": "$2,435 job cost / $5,270 value at sale (216.4% cost recouped)",
      "valueNumeric": 216.4,
      "unit": "percent of job cost recouped at resale",
      "period": "2025, 38th annual report, published September 18, 2025",
      "source": {
        "name": "Zonda, 2025 Cost vs. Value Report",
        "url": "https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zondas-38th-annual-cost-vs-value-report-confirms-exterior-projects-continue-to-deliver-the-highest-roi-302559084.html",
        "type": "industry-survey"
      },
      "quote": "Steel Door Replacement $2,435 $5,270 216.4 %",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "script",
      "note": "Same national-average, owner-occupied-resale caveat as the garage-door row above. Zonda's own report lists this project as 'Steel Door Replacement,' not 'entry door' — a nationwide midpoint, not a local or regional estimate, and it excludes rental property."
    },
    {
      "id": "census-c30-residential-construction-july2026",
      "metric": "Seasonally adjusted annual rate of total private residential construction spending (new construction plus improvements combined)",
      "value": "$859.0 billion",
      "valueNumeric": 859,
      "unit": "USD billions, seasonally adjusted annual rate",
      "period": "July 2026 (preliminary)",
      "source": {
        "name": "U.S. Census Bureau, Monthly Construction Spending (Value of Construction Put in Place, C30)",
        "url": "https://www.census.gov/construction/c30/pdf/release.pdf",
        "type": "government"
      },
      "quote": "Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $859.0 billion in July, 1.3 percent (±1.3 percent)* below the revised June estimate of $870.6 billion.",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "Census's private-residential line is footnoted as including private residential improvements bundled together with new single-family and multifamily construction — this is not an improvement-only figure. It measures construction spending, not who lives in the property, so rental, investor-owned, and owner-occupied homes are all mixed into the same number. Never quote this as 'how much homeowners spend on remodeling.'"
    },
    {
      "id": "bls-cex-owned-dwellings-2024",
      "metric": "Average annual household expenditure on owned dwellings (mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, and maintenance combined)",
      "value": "$9,310",
      "valueNumeric": 9310,
      "unit": "USD per consumer unit, annual",
      "period": "2024",
      "source": {
        "name": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys",
        "url": "https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cesan.pdf",
        "type": "government"
      },
      "quote": "Owned dwellings 8,230 8,699 9,310 5.7* 7.0*",
      "accessed": "2026-09-09",
      "verification": "manual",
      "note": "Averaged across ALL consumer units nationwide, including renters, who report $0 on this line — not homeowners only — and it bundles mortgage interest, property taxes, and insurance together with maintenance and repairs. Renters get their own separate 'rented dwellings' line in the same table ($5,660 in 2024); this row covers owned dwellings only, but it is not a maintenance-only figure."
    }
  ],
  "disagreements": [
    {
      "topic": "Why $859 billion, $611 billion, and $603 billion are all defensible answers to 'how big is the home-improvement market'",
      "positions": [
        {
          "sourceName": "U.S. Census Bureau, Monthly Construction Spending (C30)",
          "url": "https://www.census.gov/construction/c30/pdf/release.pdf",
          "value": "$859.0 billion — private residential construction, SAAR (new construction plus improvements, includes rental and investor-owned property)",
          "period": "July 2026"
        },
        {
          "sourceName": "Harvard JCHS, Improving America's Housing 2025",
          "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/interactive-item/files/Harvard_JCHS_Improving_Americas_Housing_2025_Press_Release.pdf",
          "value": "$611 billion — improvement and repair spending only, owner-occupied homes only",
          "period": "2022"
        },
        {
          "sourceName": "NAR/NARI, 2025 Remodeling Impact Report",
          "url": "https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/top-remodeling-projects-for-homeowner-satisfaction-and-cost-recovery-revealed-in-nar-report",
          "value": "$603 billion — estimated total remodeling spending, universe not fully disclosed",
          "period": "2024"
        }
      ],
      "why": "Census counts residential construction spending — new single-family and multifamily building plus improvements — as one bundled 'Residential' line that includes rental and investor-owned property; it was never designed to isolate remodeling. JCHS counts improvement and repair spending only, benchmarked to the American Housing Survey, and restricts it to owner-occupied homes: no rentals, no new construction. NAR/NARI publishes one estimated topline in a homeowner-and-Realtor survey report without disclosing exactly what it does and doesn't include. Three different measurement choices produce three different numbers. None of them is a mistake, and none of them is 'the' size of the market — pick the one whose universe matches the claim you're making."
    },
    {
      "topic": "How much JCHS's own LIRA model projects homeowners will spend on improvements and repairs",
      "positions": [
        {
          "sourceName": "JCHS LIRA, released Jan 26 2026 (revised Apr 15 2026)",
          "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/press-releases/remodeling-growth-set-downshift-late-2026",
          "value": "$518 billion",
          "period": "end of 2026 (forecast)"
        },
        {
          "sourceName": "JCHS LIRA, released May 5 2026",
          "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/press-releases/remodeling-growth-slow-sharply-early-2027",
          "value": "$523 billion",
          "period": "early 2027 (forecast)"
        },
        {
          "sourceName": "JCHS LIRA, released Jul 23 2026",
          "url": "https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/remodeling-spending-poised-further-slowdown",
          "value": "$519 billion",
          "period": "mid-2027 (forecast)"
        }
      ],
      "why": "Each LIRA release re-forecasts using the latest housing-market inputs (home sales, permits, CPI) for a rolling window ending about a year out, so the number moves quarter to quarter. The January 2026 release was also revised in April 2026 after JCHS found a formula error that had omitted some model inputs and overstated growth for 2025 Q4–2026 Q1. Small differences between releases reflect real forecast updates and a correction, not disagreement about a single settled figure — and every release covers the same owner-occupied-only universe as the LIRA rows above."
    }
  ],
  "dropped": [
    {
      "claim": "Angi's 2024/2025 State of Home Spending Report average homeowner spending figures (e.g., $12,050 in 2024)",
      "why": "Fetched both of Angi's own press releases (ir.angi.com and angi.com/press) directly; neither discloses a sample size or survey methodology for the headline dollar figures, which the brief requires before using an Angi/HomeAdvisor number."
    },
    {
      "claim": "An isolated Census Bureau dollar figure for 'private residential improvements' alone, separate from new construction, in the monthly C30 release",
      "why": "Checked the July 2026 C30 release (Table 1 and its footnotes) directly: Census does not publish improvements as a standalone monthly dollar figure. Footnote 2 confirms the published 'Residential' line always bundles new single-family and multifamily construction together with private residential improvements, so no improvement-only Census figure could be verified."
    },
    {
      "claim": "BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey dollar figure specifically for 'maintenance and repair' spending on owned homes (separate from mortgage interest, taxes, and insurance)",
      "why": "The published December 2025 CE news release (2024 data) only shows a combined 'Owned dwellings' line ($9,310); no maintenance-and-repair-only subcategory appears in that release's tables. BLS states more detailed breakdowns exist only via its online detailed tables or by request to cexinfo@bls.gov, which we could not query and verify in this session."
    }
  ]
}