More Remodeling Than First Reported

Recently revised statistics from the Census Bureau significantly increase the value of the nation’s booming remodeling market.

Experts believed the bureau’s research methods often understated this market’s value. The new statistics show that the nation’s remodeling industry reaped a record $142.9 billion in 1999, up 20% from $120 billion, the previous estimate for 1999 made by the National Assn. of Home Builders using bureau data.

Additions and alterations to existing homes accounted for 70% of remodeling expenses in the U.S. last year. The remaining 30% went toward maintenance and repairs.

Last year’s figure was up 7% from an adjusted rate of $133.7 billion earned by the remodeling industry in 1998.

The bureau worked with the builders association and the Joint Center of Housing Studies at Harvard University to revise the methodology it’s used since 1962 to track the residential remodeling market.

As a result of this effort, the bureau introduced new tabulation procedures for data collected from 1984 through 1999. The revisions show that remodeling expenditures made by Americans during these 16 years were consistently larger than originally reported.