Top states for remodeling applications

The residential remodeling market has grown rapidly in the past few years, mainly fueled by changes in housing and lifestyle decisions during the pandemic period. Solid existing home sales, high incomes, high home price appreciation and an aging housing stock supported strong remodeling activity in 2021.

According to National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), expenditures for residential home improvements soared 13% to $328 billion in 2021, from $289 billion in 2020. This marks the largest gain since 1993.

Remodeling activity has varied across geographic locations. The 2021 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, published by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), covers detailed information on residential mortgage lending in 2021. NAHB’s analysis of the 2021 HMDA data provides insight into remodeling activity across the United States.

The analysis finds that home improvement loan applications are relatively more common in the Pacific and Mountain divisions.

California had the highest total number of home improvement loan applications in 2021, with 109,856 applications, followed by Florida (82,341 applications). Wyoming and Alaska had the lowest total numbers of home improvement loan applications, which were below 1,000.

In terms of home improvement loan applications per 1,000 population, the top five states were:

• Utah
• Idaho
• Rhode Island
• New Hampshire
• Colorado

California, the most populous state of the United States, reported 2.8 applications per 1,000 population, which is lower than the national average rate of 3.3 applications per 1,000 population.