May is National Home Remodeling Month. This is the first of a series of posts in recognition of the occasion with results from NAHB’s quarterly Remodeling Market Index (RMI) survey showing that bathrooms remained the most common type of jobs performed by NAHB Remodelers in 2013.
Among remodelers responding to the 4th Quarter 2013 RMI survey, bathroom remodeling was cited as a common job during the year by 72 percent, followed closely by kitchen remodeling at 70 percent. Since the inception of the survey in 2001, bathrooms and kitchens have been jockeying for top spot on the most popular remodeling projects list. At first kitchen remodeling led the race by a few percentage points, but after 2009 bathroom remodeling edged into first place where it has remained through 2013.
Although other categories of remodeling trail kitchens and baths by a substantial margin, window and door replacements, whole house remodeling, and room additions are also relatively popular projects, cited as common jobs in 2013 by 35 to 40 percent of remodelers each. Repairing damage, handyman services and decks were cited as common by 25 to 29 percent.
In general, there have been few large changes in the percentages over the last two iterations of the common remodeling projects questions, but whole house remodeling has rebounded from a low point during the depths of the housing downturn. After spending most of the decade of the 2000s well above 40 percent, the share of remodelers citing whole house remodeling as a common project plummeted to 21 percent in the second quarter of 2010, before bouncing back up to 35 percent in the first quarter of 2012 and 39 percent in the latest survey.
Although not back to its pre-2010 peak, the rising share of NAHB members reporting that a big ticket item like whole house remodeling has become common for them is a sign that the market has made some progress toward a recovery.
View this original post on the NAHB blog, Eye on Housing.
