Home Improvement Spending Jumps

Despite the much-ballyhooed do-it-yourself boom, the amount of money homeowners spent on improvements done professionally has jumped nearly as much since the mid-'90s. Remodeling Homes for Changing Households by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University reports a 22% increase in expenditures for professionally completed projects compared with 24.8% for DIY. The biggest two-year increase for professional replacement expenditures was the most recent ù 29.7% from 1996-97 to 1998-99 ù while the biggest rise in spending on discretionary projects occurred from 1994-95 to 1996-97, a 12% jump.

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Spending Table