Estimating National Levels of Home Improvement and Repair Spending by Rental Property Owners

After many years of rapid expansion, national expenditures for home improvements and maintenance and repairs topped $325 billion in 2007 according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies’ market size estimates. While spending for improvements and repairs to owner-occupied units comprises the majority of the remodeling market, renovation and repairs to rental units is not insignificant by any means. In fact, the Census Bureau estimated expenditures by rental property owners for improvements and maintenance reached $52 billion in 2007, nearly one-sixth of the entire remodeling market. Unfortunately, the remodeling industry lost a key source for measuring rental remodeling activity when in 2007 the U.S. Census Bureau discontinued its quarterly Residential Improvements and Repairs Statistics, also known as the C-50 series...