Home improvement is a major U.S. household expense, but the pattern is changing. The remodeling market reached $611 billion in 2022, while owner-occupied homes generated more than 80% of remodeling expenditures in 2023. At the household level, project type, home age, income, location and homeowner age all influence how much people spend.
This article uses U.S. measurements, primarily for owner-occupied homes. Periods are shown exactly as reported. Census and HUD American Housing Survey (AHS) figures cover the 2021–2023 reference window, while many Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) spending values are 2023 dollars or 2023 survey estimates.
Table of contents
- Market size and participation
- Project types and typical costs
- DIY versus professional work
- Homeowner age and spending
- Regional, income and racial differences
- Home age, repairs and accessibility
Market size and participation
The U.S. remodeling market peaked at $611 billion in 2022. Harvard JCHS expected remodeling-market spending to remain above $600 billion through 2025; this is a forecast, not an observed 2026 measurement. The AHS-based homeowner remodeling and repair market provides a somewhat different market series: it grew from $407 billion in 2021 to $515 billion in 2022, then contracted slightly to $510 billion in 2023. These series should not be treated as interchangeable totals.
Owner-occupied homes accounted for more than 80% of total remodeling expenditures in 2023. Homeowner improvement spending itself reached $405 billion that year. Participation was also substantial: almost 26 million homeowners, or 29.7% of owners, undertook improvement projects in 2023. In 2019, just over 22 million homeowners, or 28.0% of owners, were undertaking improvements.
Maintenance reached more households than improvement projects. The share of owners spending on maintenance held at 75% from 2019 to 2023, while the number of owners spending rose from 60 million to 65 million. The difference between participation rates and total spending reflects the fact that many households make small maintenance purchases, while a smaller group takes on expensive renovations.
The Improving America’s Housing 2025 report provides the JCHS market, participation and spending estimates in this section.
Project types and typical costs
The 2023 AHS counted 51.6 million homeowners who made improvements, equal to 59% of the 86.9 million homeowners surveyed during the 2021–2023 reference period. Energy-efficiency improvements were made by 14.7 million homeowners, or 28% of homeowners who made improvements.
Several equipment and finish categories appeared frequently in reported projects:
- Water heaters, dishwashers or garbage disposals appeared in 32% of improvement projects.
- HVAC improvements appeared in 25% of projects.
- Flooring, paneling or ceiling-tile work appeared in 21% of projects.
The median homeowner improvement expenditure was $6,500. The median amounts below show how widely costs varied by project category:
| Project category | Median spending |
|---|---|
| Water heater, dishwasher or garbage disposal | $800 |
| Electrical wiring or fuse boxes | $1,000 |
| Doors and windows | $2,800 |
| Flooring, paneling or ceiling tiles | $3,000 |
| Bathroom remodel | $5,000 |
| HVAC improvement | $5,500 |
| Kitchen remodel | $8,000 |
| Roofing project | $10,000 |
These are project medians from the 2023 Home Improvements Infographic, not universal quotes for a particular house. A median describes the midpoint of reported projects, so actual costs can differ by property, scope and location.
DIY versus professional work
Professional work dominated owner-occupied improvement spending in 2023. Professionally installed projects represented 84.1% of spending, or $340 billion. DIY projects represented the remaining 15.9%, or $64 billion, a historic low in the JCHS series. JCHS reported that professional improvement spending increased 14% in real terms from 2021 to 2023, while DIY improvement spending declined 13% in real terms over the same period.
The typical DIY improvement project cost $2,600 in 2023. The average professional improvement project cost $7,800. The comparison reflects more than labor: JCHS notes that DIY spending includes owner material costs only, while professional spending includes labor, materials, profit and overhead.
Project purpose also differed between the two approaches. Discretionary projects represented 36% of DIY spending and 29% of professional improvement spending in 2023. Replacement projects represented 40% of DIY spending and 50% of professional improvement spending. In other words, replacement work accounted for a larger share of professional spending, while discretionary work accounted for a larger share of DIY spending.
The Home Improvement Spending Has Shifted Away from DIY analysis and the Improving America’s Housing 2025 report identify these DIY and professional spending measures.
Homeowner age and spending
Older homeowners accounted for a growing share of the improvement economy. Owners age 65 and over contributed 27% of total improvement outlays in 2023, up from 14% in 2003. The number of homeowners in this age group grew by 12 million between 2003 and 2023, and their share of homeowners rose from 24% to 34%.
Average per-owner improvement spending for owners age 65 and over rose from inflation-adjusted $1,800 in 2003 to $3,800 in 2023. The reported 2023 averages for the age groups were:
| Homeowner age | Average improvement spending in 2023 |
|---|---|
| Under 35 | $4,200 per owner |
| 35–44 | $5,700 per owner |
| 45–54 | $5,300 per owner |
| 55–64 | $4,900 per owner |
| 65 and over | $3,800 per owner |
Owners age 35–44 had the highest reported average. Younger ownership also expanded: the number of homeowners under age 35 grew 15% to 7.9 million households between 2015 and 2023. Their aggregate improvement expenditures reached $34 billion in 2023, 51% above 2015 in real terms. These figures show why total market participation and average spending can tell different stories across age groups.
Regional, income and racial differences
From 2015 to 2023, average annual per-owner improvement spending across 35 metro areas was $4,900. Individual markets ranged from $3,200 to $7,200. Average annual spending was at least $6,000 in Boston, San Francisco and Washington, DC, but below $4,000 in Detroit, Atlanta and Las Vegas.
The largest metro areas concentrated a significant share of total activity. The 15 largest U.S. metro areas accounted for 33% of aggregate improvement expenditures in 2023, or more than $133 billion. Per-owner spending in those metros averaged $5,300, which was 13% above the national average.
Spending also varied by race and income. In 2023, average improvement spending was $5,000 for white homeowners, $3,600 for Black homeowners, $3,700 for Hispanic homeowners and $4,500 for Asian homeowners. By income position, homeowners in the bottom income fifth averaged $2,300, compared with $9,100 for homeowners in the top income fifth.
The gap was wider for installation method: the highest-income homeowners spent nearly three times as much on DIY installations and more than four times as much on professional installations as the lowest-income homeowners. These comparisons describe measured spending differences; they do not by themselves identify the causes.
The Interactive Tool Highlights Disparities in Remodeling Spending article supplies the racial, income and metro-area comparisons.
Home age, repairs and accessibility
The age of the housing stock helps explain replacement and repair demand. The median age of owner-occupied homes reached 42 years in 2023, up from 37 years in 2013 and 31 years in 2003.
Owners of homes built before 1940 averaged $6,700 in improvement and repair spending in 2023, about 50% more than owners of homes built in 2010 or later. Owners of homes built in the 2010s averaged $4,500, while owners of homes built in 2020 or later averaged $4,300.
Replacement projects accounted for 50% of remodeling expenditures in homes built before 1940, compared with 37% in homes built in the 2010s and 9% in homes built in 2020 or later. Older homes therefore had both higher average spending and a much larger replacement component.
Repair needs were widespread. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia estimated that 33% of the owner-occupied housing stock, or 27 million homes, needed at least one repair in 2022. Unaddressed owner-occupied repair needs were valued at $98 billion, based on an estimated average cost of nearly $3,600 per unit.
Accessibility work became more common. The share of owners undertaking accessibility improvements rose from 2.8% in 2018–2019 to 3.7% in 2022–2023. The number of owners undertaking accessibility remodeling reached 3.2 million in 2022–2023, up from 2.3 million in 2018–2019. In the later period, accessibility remodeling was reported by 5.5% of owners age 65 and over, 3.9% of owners age 55–64 and 2.2% of owners under age 55.
Among professional remodelers, 63% reported installing aging-in-place modifications in 2023. Among those remodelers, 93% installed grab bars, 83% curbless showers, 77% higher toilets, 63% widened doorways, 49% improved lighting and 42% added an entry-level bedroom or full bathroom. These remodeler percentages come from NAHB reporting summarized in the JCHS report, so they describe reporting remodelers rather than all U.S. projects.
The housing-age, repair and accessibility measures are reported in Improving America’s Housing 2025. Together, they show how an aging housing stock, unresolved repairs and longer-term accessibility needs shape the projects homeowners undertake.