Home decorating consumer behavior is closely tied to the broader home-improvement market. In the 2021–2023 period, 51.6 million U.S. homeowners—59% of all homeowners—made improvements, completing 140 million projects. The figures below show where that activity happened, how much households spent, and how choices differed by project type, age, household group, and region.
Contents
- How many homeowners are improving their homes
- Home improvement spending and project mix
- Renovation budgets, timing, and funding
- Professional installation versus DIY
- Age and household-group differences
- Regional and spending-concentration patterns
How many homeowners are improving their homes
The 2023 American Housing Survey counted 86.9 million U.S. homeowners during 2021–2023. Of that population, 51.6 million made at least one home improvement, equivalent to 59% of homeowners. Those households completed 140 million improvement projects, so participation included many homes with multiple projects. These figures come from the 2023 Home Improvements Infographic from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Energy-related work was a substantial part of that activity. Among homeowners who improved their homes, 14.7 million made energy-efficiency improvements, or 28%. The same American Housing Survey counted 50 million projects carried out by homeowners themselves, representing 36% of all projects. That project count is different from the share of spending done by DIY households discussed later, because projects and dollars measure different things.
Some improvement activity followed damage rather than planned decorating. Tornado or hurricane damage led to improvement work in 663,000 occupied housing units during 2021–2023. Fire damage led to improvement work in another 129,000 occupied housing units. These counts help separate appearance-led projects from repairs prompted by an event.
Home improvement spending and project mix
U.S. homeowners spent $827 billion on home improvements during 2021–2023, according to the 2023 Home Improvements Infographic. The median homeowner expenditure was $6,500. Project-level medians show how widely the consumer budget can vary.
| Project type | Median expenditure | Total spending and projects, where reported |
|---|---|---|
| Security system | $400 | — |
| Plumbing fixtures | $500 | — |
| Water heater, dishwasher, or garbage disposal | $800 | — |
| Electrical wiring or fuse box | $1,000 | — |
| Flooring, paneling, or ceiling tiles | $3,000 | $51.0 billion across 10.9 million projects |
| Bathroom remodel | $5,000 | $68.9 billion across 7.5 million projects |
| Kitchen remodel | $8,000 | $83.1 billion across 5.0 million projects |
| Roofing | $10,000 | $93.5 billion across 8.3 million projects |
The lower-cost categories include a $400 median for a security-system project, $500 for plumbing fixtures, $800 for a water heater, dishwasher, or garbage-disposal project, and $1,000 for electrical wiring or fuse boxes. The median was $2,800 for doors or windows, $2,900 for driveways or walkways, $4,600 for an attached garage or carport, and $4,800 for a porch, deck, patio, or terrace.
Several categories combine practical changes with visible changes to the home. Flooring, paneling, or ceiling tiles had a $3,000 median and generated $51.0 billion across 10.9 million projects. Doors and windows generated $45.2 billion across 7.9 million projects. Porch, deck, patio, and terrace work generated $32.8 billion across 3.9 million projects.
The largest totals included roofing at $93.5 billion across 8.3 million projects, kitchen remodels at $83.1 billion across 5.0 million projects, and HVAC work at $82.4 billion across 12.8 million projects. Bathroom remodels generated $68.9 billion across 7.5 million projects. Landscaping or sprinkler-system work generated $26.6 billion across 7.0 million projects, while driveways and walkways generated $20.9 billion across 4.6 million projects. All project amounts and counts in this section are for 2021–2023 and are reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Renovation budgets, timing, and funding
The 2024 U.S. Houzz & Home Study: Renovation Trends reports a higher spending level among renovating U.S. Houzz homeowners. Their median renovation spend rose from $15,000 in 2020 to $24,000 in 2023, a 60% increase. At the high end, the 90th-percentile spend rose from $85,000 to $150,000, a 77% increase. In 2023, 51% of renovating Houzz homeowners spent at least $25,000, compared with 37% in 2020.
Renovation plans also required significant time. In 2023, kitchen renovations averaged 9.6 months of planning and 5.1 months of building. Living-room renovations averaged 8.1 months of planning and 4.1 months of building. These are survey results for renovating Houzz homeowners, not estimates for every homeowner or every decorating purchase.
Cash from savings funded 83% of renovation projects in the Houzz survey, while credit cards funded 37%. For projects costing $50,000–$200,000, home loans funded 23% and cash from home sales funded 21%. Because respondents could use more than one funding source, these percentages describe reported project financing rather than a single exclusive split.
The project mix also points to where larger budgets went. Kitchens were renovated by 29% of respondents, guest bathrooms by 27%, primary bathrooms by 25%, and living rooms by 21% in 2023. Median kitchen-project spending reached $24,000 after increasing 20% from the prior year. Median primary-bathroom spending reached $15,000 after increasing 11% from the prior year.
Professional installation versus DIY
The Improving America’s Housing 2025 report provides a spending-based view of installation choices for owner-occupied homes. Professionally installed improvements reached $340 billion in 2023, up 28% from 2021. Professional work represented 84.1% of owner-occupied improvement spending in 2023, an increase of 4.0 percentage points from 2021.
DIY improvement spending was $64 billion in 2023, down 2% from 2021 and equal to a 15.9% market share. The typical DIY project cost $2,600 in 2023, compared with $7,800 for the typical professional project. This helps explain why homeowner-performed projects can represent 36% of project volume in the Census Bureau data while DIY accounts for a smaller share of spending in the JCHS tabulation.
Age was associated with a different installation mix. Owners age 65 and over devoted more than 88% of improvement dollars to professional projects, compared with 76% for owners under 35. In the Houzz survey, more than 90% of renovating homeowners hired professional help in 2023. Specialty-service-provider hiring rose from 46% of renovating homeowners in 2022 to 47% in 2023, while construction-professional hiring fell from 44% to 42%.
Age and household-group differences
Older homeowners represented a growing share of the improvement market in JCHS’s 2023 tabulations. Homeowners age 65 and over spent $110 billion on improvements in 2023, or 27% of the market. That was up from 23% in 2013 and 14% in 2003. Households headed by someone age 65 and over made up 34% of homeowner households in 2023, compared with 29% in 2013.
Average real improvement spending by owners age 65 and over rose from $2,800 in 2013 to $3,800 in 2023, a 35% increase. The Houzz renovation survey shows a different generational comparison for 2023: Gen X homeowners had a $25,000 median renovation spend, versus $24,000 for Baby Boomers. Among the highest spenders, the top 10% of Gen X renovation spenders spent at least $180,000, compared with $131,000 for Baby Boomers.
Homeownership and improvement spending also varied across household groups. The 2023 homeownership rate was 73.5% for white households, 46.1% for Black households, and 49.5% for Hispanic households. Among homeowners, average 2023 improvement spending was $5,000 for white homeowners, $3,600 for Black homeowners, $3,700 for Hispanic homeowners, and $4,500 for Asian homeowners. These figures are household-group comparisons reported in Improving America’s Housing 2025, not measures of individual decorating preferences.
Regional and spending-concentration patterns
Average 2023 improvement spending per owner was highest in the West at $5,400, followed by the Northeast at $5,200. The Midwest averaged $4,400 per owner, while the South averaged $4,200. These regional figures come from JCHS tabulations of owner-occupied homes in Improving America’s Housing 2025.
Spending was concentrated among owners with the largest project budgets. Owners spending at least $50,000 accounted for 44% of improvement expenditures in 2023, compared with 41% in 2021. By region, high-spending owners accounted for more than 51% of improvement expenditures in the West, 47% in the Northeast, 42% in the South, and 38% in the Midwest.
The largest metropolitan areas also held a disproportionate share of dollars. The 15 largest U.S. metro areas contained 29% of homeowners and 28% of owners with improvement projects in 2023, but they represented 33% of expenditures, or more than $133 billion. For anyone interpreting home decorating consumer behavior, that gap matters: the number of participating households and the value of the projects are not distributed in exactly the same way.