15 metros where home improvement spending is rising the fastest
Many signs show that 2022 has been a strong year for home remodeling—if homeowners can find contractors to do the work, according to a recent survey of home remodelers by the National Association of Home Builders.
Angi examined the annual Metro Area Home Improvement Projection from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies to see which parts of the United States were estimated to see the most remodeling growth over 2022. The report was initially published in February 2022 and has been updated several times, the most recent of which is reflected in this analysis.
Home improvement spending for the year is projected to increase by 13.8% compared to 2021 across the 48 metro areas tracked by Harvard.
Analysis was limited to owner-occupied homes in those 48 major metropolitan areas. Metros include the central city as well as its surrounding towns and suburbs. Projected growth was determined using factors including remodeling permits, single-family home prices, and sales of building materials and garden supplies.
As home prices increased and homeowners locked in low mortgage interest rates over the past two years, households had more cash available to make improvements to a space increasingly doubling as the office.
Remodeling growth was largely forecast for the West and Sunbelt regions due to rapid home price appreciation and rising incomes in these areas.
"Interest rates are having a negative effect, more so on new construction than remodeling, so it's not surprising that remodeler sentiment has so far managed to stay positive," National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist Robert Dietz told the magazine of the Mortgage Professionals of America in October 2022.
Dietz's organization expects a "small increase" in remodeling activity in 2023, while the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard anticipates a "sharp downturn" by the middle of next year.
