DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2016

Washington, D.C., homeowners must have caught a remodeling bug. The ZIP code 20854 – a close-in suburb of Washington, D.C. – tops the list of estimates home owners will spend on remodeling projects this year.

Owners in this area are on track to spend more than $68 million on home improvements this year – the highest of any of the 25,000 ZIP codes analyzed by the National Association of Home Builders. Part of the reason for that ZIP code's remodeling surge is that 53 percent of the homes there were built between 1960 and 1980, known as a “sweet spot” for remodeling.

Their analysis looked at total spending on home improvements, the number of owner-occupied homes, and the average spending per improvement for 2016, and found that on average, home owners will spend $5,800 on home improvements this year. However, a few pockets across the country will spend about triple that, up to $18,000.

Areas with the most remodeling expenditures tend to have the highest number of homes built between 1960 and 1980, but hot remodeling pockets have also been equated with high levels of highly educated and high-income residents.

For example, ZIP code 10007 – which is lower Manhattan and contains the World Trade Center – topped the list for highest spending per improvement at more than $22,000. In the area, 99 percent of home owners have a college degree and their average income is well over half a million dollars.

“On the other hand, in the fifth ZIP code on the list (94028, Portola Valley in California), the average remodel is a little over $17,000, and this is driven in part by the age of the owner-occupied housing stock (with a third of it built between 1960 and 1980), although home owners in Portola Valley are also relatively wealthy and well-educated,” NAHB researchers note on the builder trade group’s Eye on Housing blog.

Source: “NAHB Releases Remodeling by ZIP Code Estimates for 2016,” National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing blog (May 25, 2016)