Contents
- Home improvement spending statistics: U.S. market size and trends
- Home improvement spending by project type
- DIY versus professional home improvement spending
- Home improvement spending by homeowner age
- Home improvement spending by region
- Disaster repairs and how homeowners pay
- Sources
Home improvement spending statistics: U.S. market size and trends
U.S. spending on improvements and repairs to owner-occupied and rental properties rose from $404 billion in 2019 to $609 billion in 2023. That is a 51% nominal increase; after adjusting for inflation, the market grew 27%. The series continued upward to $611 billion in 2022, then eased slightly to $609 billion in 2023 and $603 billion in 2024. These figures cover the broader residential remodeling market, not just work in owner-occupied homes.
The report estimates 2025 spending at $608 billion. That is a modeled estimate, not a final observed total: it uses the 2024:Q4 Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity. Keep that distinction in mind when comparing it with earlier years.
| Year | U.S. improvements and repairs spending |
|---|---|
| 2019 | $404 billion |
| 2020 | $443 billion |
| 2021 | $496 billion |
| 2022 | $611 billion |
| 2023 | $609 billion |
| 2024 | $603 billion |
| 2025 | $608 billion (estimate) |
Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America’s Housing 2025, Figure 1 and pp. 9–10.
Within that broader market, improvements to owner-occupied homes totaled $405 billion in 2023, 54% more nominally than in 2019 and 29% more after inflation. Average spending per owner rose from $3,300 in 2019 to $4,700 in 2023. Nearly 26 million homeowners undertook at least one improvement project in 2023, 3.5 million households—or 16%—more than in 2019. The share of owners reporting a project reached 29.7% in 2021 and remained at that two-decade high in 2023.
Home improvement spending by project type
Replacement work absorbed the largest defined share of owner-occupied home improvement spending in 2023. Projects such as replacing roofs, windows, and HVAC systems made up 49% of expenditures, or $197 billion. These projects address existing components and systems; they are a different category from discretionary changes such as remodeling rooms or adding space.
Discretionary projects—including kitchen and bath remodels and room additions—accounted for 30%, or $121 billion. The project categories below show how several specific types contributed to aggregate owner improvement expenditures. They are shares of spending, not shares of households or project counts.
| Project category | Share of 2023 homeowner improvement spending |
|---|---|
| Exterior replacements | 20.1% |
| Systems and equipment replacements | 18.5% |
| Outside property improvements | 15.4% |
| Interior replacements | 10.1% |
| Kitchen remodels | 10.1% |
| Bath remodels | 8.3% |
| Room additions | 5.9% |
| Disaster repairs | 5.9% |
| Outside attachments | 5.7% |
Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America’s Housing 2025, Figure 8 and pp. 10–11; JCHS tabulations of HUD’s 2023 American Housing Survey. Percentages are reported categories and may not sum to 100% because other categories are not shown.
Energy-related work cuts across project types. Projects affecting home energy use accounted for about $140 billion, or 34% of national owner improvement spending in 2023. Separately, nearly 15 million households—17% of homeowners—reported at least one project in the preceding two years explicitly intended to improve energy efficiency. One is a spending measure; the other is a household survey measure, so they describe different aspects of the market.
DIY versus professional home improvement spending
Professional projects accounted for 84.1% of aggregate owner-occupied home improvement expenditures in 2023, while DIY projects accounted for 15.9%. The distinction matters when interpreting dollar totals: professional project spending includes labor, materials, profit, and overhead. DIY spending counts the owner’s material costs only.
Professional improvement expenditures reached $340 billion in 2023, up 28% nominally from 2021 and 14% after inflation. DIY outlays were $64 billion, down 2% nominally and 13% in real terms over the same period. The figures reflect differences in both project spending and what each measure includes, so they should not be read as a simple comparison of labor hours or project numbers.
DIY’s share also differed by homeowner age. In 2023, it represented 24% of improvement spending by owners under 35, compared with 15% for owners age 35 and over. These are shares of spending within each age group, not the percentage of younger or older owners who did projects.
Source for this section: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America’s Housing 2025, pp. 11–12 and 19.
Home improvement spending by homeowner age
Older homeowners account for a growing share of owner improvement outlays. Owners age 65 and over contributed 27% of total improvement spending in 2023, compared with 14% in 2003. This is a share of spending, not an average amount per older homeowner, and it does not by itself show why the share changed.
Age also relates to how projects are carried out: younger owners devoted a larger fraction of their improvement spending to DIY work in 2023. Taken together, the figures show two different dimensions of the market—who accounts for spending and how that spending is divided between professional and DIY projects. They do not establish that age alone determines project choices or costs.
Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America’s Housing 2025, summary p. 3 and p. 19.
Home improvement spending by region
Across 35 metropolitan areas available in the American Housing Survey, annual per-owner improvement spending averaged $4,900 over 2015–2023, measured in 2023 dollars. The nationwide average for the same period was $4,100 per owner. These are inflation-adjusted averages across the period, not 2023-only totals or estimates for every metro area.
The comparison offers a broad benchmark for the metros included in the analysis, but it does not mean each of the 35 areas exceeded the national average. The national figure includes a wider geography, and the report’s metro comparison is limited to the areas with data available in the survey.
Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America’s Housing 2025, Figure 11, p. 15. Spending is adjusted using CPI-U All Items and expressed in 2023 dollars.
Disaster repairs and how homeowners pay
Disaster-related repairs form a measurable part of home improvement spending. In 2023, disaster repairs represented 5.9% of aggregate owner improvement expenditures. Across 2021–2023, homeowners spent an average of $23 billion a year repairing disaster-related damage. The report compares that with less than $9 billion annually in real terms about 20 years earlier.
Insurance settlements financed 68% of spending for disaster restoration projects in 2023. That figure describes the funding share for restoration work, while the $23 billion figure is an annual average of aggregate homeowner spending on disaster-related repairs. They use different measures and should not be combined as though they describe the same denominator.
Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America’s Housing 2025, pp. 16 and 37.