Top home improvements according to NAR

Knowing which home improvements are more likely to yield benefits when you go to sell is important information even if you just plan to enjoy the improvements for a while. It is also helpful as a seller to appreciate the value of improvements made to properties you are considering. National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) recently released a 2019 Remodeling Impact Report that shares some helpful and enlightening information on this very topic.

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The report covers homeowners' reasons for completing improvement projects and examines the costs and return on investment values for those improvements. The last report was released in 2017 and this one was released just recently providing helpful insights. Since the last release, there have been some interesting changes over that two-year period. The full report can be accessed at the bottom of this article.

"This year, we saw the estimated cost of closet renovations increase from 2017; however, we also saw an increase in the cost recovered from this project," Brandi Snowden, director of Member and Consumer Survey Research at NAR, tells Housecall. "Because homeowners are staying longer in their homes, we see them investing more elaborately than in the past."

Another effect of homeowners staying in their residences longer is they're choosing to invest their money in projects that they'll use on a daily basis, and that will improve the functionality and livability of their home.

The most popular renovations this go round were kitchen renovations/upgrades and close renovations. Behind that were HVAC replacements, bathroom renovations, flooring upgrades and additions of bathrooms. On the outside of the house, new roofing was the most popular improvement because of the perceived value it adds to the property as a major system. Window replacements (vinyl) and garage doors were near the top of the list.

NAR calculated a Joy Score for the improvement projects noted. The score serves to measure the happiness homeowners noted for each of the renovations. There were several projects that came out with 10's such as kitchen renovations, closet renovations, and whole house paint.