California, Texas and Florida together account for more than a fifth of all U.S. home remodeling spending, according to new state-level data released Aug. 10, 2026, by the National Association of Home Builders, even as nationwide remodeling activity posted its third straight quarterly decline.
NAHB’s State Projections of Remodeling model, a statistical tool that estimates each state’s market share and dollar value of remodeling spending from national quarterly improvement-spending data, found California led all states in the first quarter of 2026 with an 8.0% national market share worth $22.2 billion, followed by Texas at 7.3% ($20.2 billion) and Florida at 5.5% ($15.4 billion). Combined, the three states accounted for $57.8 billion of remodeling spending β just over 20% of the national total.
New York ranked fourth at 4.0% market share ($11.2 billion) and North Carolina fifth at 3.0% ($8.4 billion), rounding out the top five. NAHB said the top 10 states were fairly evenly distributed by region, with three states each from the Northeast and South and two each from the Midwest and West β and found a strong statistical correlation (0.97) between a state’s remodeling spending and its population.
Nationally, remodeling spending reached $274.7 billion on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis in the first quarter, representing 37.7% of total private residential fixed investment. Remodeling spending has now exceeded new single-family construction spending for seven consecutive quarters, underscoring how much of the residential construction industry’s activity is now concentrated in renovating existing homes rather than building new ones. Even so, remodeling spending itself has softened, declining for a third straight quarter, and the number of states posting negative growth doubled to 10 in the first quarter from five in the prior quarter. NAHB is forecasting flat inflation-adjusted remodeling spending for 2026.
Not every state is slowing at the same pace. On a four-quarter moving average basis, Michigan posted the largest dollar increase in remodeling spending among all states, up $637.6 million, followed by Virginia (up $421.9 million), North Carolina (up $323.6 million) and Alabama (up $311.9 million).
NAHB’s State Projections of Remodeling model does not survey homeowners or contractors directly in each state. Instead, it distributes the national quarterly improvement-spending total β drawn from the same underlying data used in the Census Bureau’s residential construction figures β across states using a statistical model built on NAHB’s own annual state-level remodeling forecasts and other indicators, including population, housing stock age and income. That approach makes the report most useful as a market-share snapshot showing where remodeling dollars are concentrated relative to the national total, rather than as an independent, from-the-ground-up state survey.
What it means: The data reinforces a theme RealtyWire has tracked through 2026: with elevated mortgage rates discouraging homeowners from selling and buying elsewhere, many are choosing to renovate in place instead, a dynamic reflected in NAHB’s other recent findings on how home purchases ripple through consumer spending. But remodeling’s third consecutive quarterly decline suggests even that substitute activity is losing momentum as affordability pressure and macro uncertainty weigh on homeowners’ willingness to take on renovation projects, not just new purchases. The geographic concentration in California, Texas and Florida β the nation’s three largest states by population β is consistent with the strong population correlation NAHB identified, though the divergence in growth trends, with states like Michigan and Virginia gaining share even as the national total contracts, points to more localized demand drivers, from storm recovery to relocation patterns, shaping where renovation dollars are actually being spent.
