10 States That Spent Most on Home Improvement

Spending on home improvement is likely to be the highest it's been in a decade according to a study by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. And California is leading the list of states that are spending a tidy sum on home improvements according to an analysis by real estate blog Fixr, which broke down home improvement spending by state in 2018 based on National Association of Home Builders estimates.

For the rankings, the blog looked at owner-occupied homes’ estimated improvements in 2018 and broke down the expenditure into five sectors of total home improvement ranging from below $1 billion to more than $20 billion. "The greatest number of states fall into the $1-5 billion spending bracket with a 50.9 percent share," Fixr found. "The below $1 billion spending bracket represents 23.5 percent of states, the $5-10 billion bracket accounts for 17.6 percent of states."

With a home improvement spending of $20.3 billion, California topped the list followed by Texas which showed a spending of $13.9 billion. New York, which came third on this list spent $11.6 billion on renovations while at fourth place Florida spent $11.4 billion. Pennsylvania, with a home renovation spending of $8.7 billion rounded off the top five states.

The breakdown also found that while the amount spent by each state varied significantly, the percentage of homeowners choosing to make improvements ranged between 28 percent and 31 percent of all homeowners. "This implies that states with higher populations and therefore higher numbers of homeowners still provide the most lucrative market segments to target," the analysis indicated.

It also found that income levels were most likely to impact spending on renovations with states where income levels were rising being areas for future focus for home improvement and construction. In this category, Oregon and Massachusetts showed the most growth and a potential for earnings, the analysis found.

Other states that were among the top 10 were Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, and North Carolina.