About
What this is, and where the numbers come from.
Raise The Value is a research publication for people who own property or are about to: homeowners, landlords, short-term rental hosts and fix-and-flip investors. We publish one thing, what the data says about what raises the value of a property, in a form you can check.
The mission
Americans spend more than $600 billion a year improving their homes, and most of those decisions are made on instinct and a contractor's opinion. The gap between what people spend on and what the data says pays back is the reason this publication exists. We close it with primary sources, stated methods and exact figures, and we say plainly when the data does not exist.
The standard
- Every figure comes from a primary source we checked. A named report, survey or peer-reviewed study, never a summary of one and never a number repeated in a video. If we cannot trace it to its origin, it does not go in.
- Every figure carries its method. Who was asked, what was measured, when, and how many. A percentage without those four things is an opinion with a percent sign.
- Every figure says "can," not "will." Averages describe other people's properties. They tell you where to look first; your local quotes and comparable sales decide the rest.
- Errors are corrected in public. When we find one, we fix it on the page and say so. If you find one, email contact@raisethevalue.com.
How we rank sources
Not all data is equal, so every article tells you which kind it is using. From strongest to weakest:
- Transaction and administrative data. Closed sales, listings, public records and government indexes. The strongest evidence: it measures what happened, not what someone estimated.
- Federal statistics and peer-reviewed research. Census, HUD, BLS, EIA and university programs, plus studies that passed peer review. Rigorous methods, stated limitations.
- Large surveys of buyers and owners. Thousands of actual buyers or homeowners reporting what they did or want. Reliable for behavior and preference; not a price.
- Professional-opinion surveys. Real estate professionals estimating what a buyer would pay. The industry standard for renovation return, and always labeled as an estimate.
- Commercial and user surveys. Self-selected respondents or a company's own customers. Context only; never the basis for a value claim.
Where the data comes from
The sources we cite today, and the ones our data program is adding. "Cited" means it already appears in a published article.
| Source | What it measures | Method | Tier | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zillow Research Zillow | Sale-price effects of listing features; renter and buyer behavior; home value and rent indexes (ZHVI, ZORI) | Listing descriptions matched to closed prices with controls; large-sample surveys; index methodology published Ongoing; index data monthly · National to ZIP | 1 | Cited |
| Energy Efficiency: Value Added to Properties & Loan Performance Freddie Mac | Sale premium for homes with a HERS energy rating | ~70,000 rated homes (2013–2017) compared with unrated homes One-time white paper · National | 1 | Cited |
| Improving America's Housing Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies | Size and shape of the U.S. remodeling market; spending by project type and owner | Analysis of federal survey data (American Housing Survey and others) Biennial (2025), plus the quarterly LIRA · National | 2 | Cited |
| Valuing Curb Appeal Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics (Johnson, Tidwell & Villupuram, 2020) | Effect of a property's and its neighbors' curb appeal on sale price | Peer-reviewed; Street View images scored by a classifier and matched to sales One-time study · U.S. metro sample | 2 | Cited |
| What Home Buyers Really Want NAHB, Economics & Housing Policy Group (Eye On Housing, April 3, 2024) | Features buyers rate essential, desirable, indifferent or unwanted | National survey of 3,000+ recent and prospective buyers (2024 edition) Periodic · National | 3 | Cited |
| Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report Zonda Media | Job cost and estimated resale value for 28 remodeling projects | Real estate professionals in 119 U.S. markets estimate the resale value of each project; costs from Verisk XactRemodel Annual (38th edition, 2025) · National, regional, 119 metros | 4 | Cited |
| Remodeling Impact Report National Association of REALTORS® / NARI | Cost recovery and homeowner Joy Scores for interior projects; what Realtors recommend before listing | Survey of 4,005 REALTORS®, 806 homeowners and 177 remodelers (2025) Periodic · National | 4 | Cited |
| Remodeling Impact Report: Outdoor Features National Association of REALTORS® / NALP | Cost, recovery and Joy Scores for outdoor projects | Survey of 2,620 REALTORS® and 160 landscape professionals (2023) Periodic · National | 4 | Cited |
| U.S. Houzz & Home Study Houzz | Median renovation spend and how homeowners fund it | Survey of 21,889 Houzz users, including 10,981 renovating U.S. homeowners (2025 study, 2024 activity) Annual · National | 5 | Cited |
| House Price Index Federal Housing Finance Agency | Repeat-sales house price index | Repeat transactions on conforming mortgages; published methodology Monthly / quarterly; annual ZIP-level · National, state, metro, ZIP | 1 | Adding |
| Home Flipping Report ATTOM | Flip counts, gross profit and gross ROI by metro | Public-record deed data; gross figures exclude rehab and carrying costs Quarterly · National, metro | 1 | Adding |
| Redfin Data Center Redfin | Median sale price, days on market, sale-to-list ratio, inventory | MLS-derived transaction data; downloadable Weekly / monthly · National to ZIP | 1 | Adding |
| Realtor.com Research Data Realtor.com | Listing counts, list prices, days on market | Listing data; downloadable Monthly · National to ZIP | 1 | Adding |
| County appraisal rolls Dallas Central Appraisal District, Tarrant Appraisal District | Property characteristics and appraised values for every parcel | Public records, bulk download Annual · Dallas–Fort Worth counties | 1 | Adding |
| Housing Vacancy Survey U.S. Census Bureau | Rental and homeowner vacancy rates | Federal survey; published sampling error Quarterly · National, region, state, 75 largest metros | 2 | Adding |
| American Housing Survey U.S. Census Bureau / HUD | Housing unit characteristics, condition and improvement spending | Federal survey; microdata Biennial · National, selected metros | 2 | Adding |
| American Community Survey U.S. Census Bureau | Home values, rents, year built, tenure by geography | Federal survey; API Annual · National to tract | 2 | Adding |
| Fair Market Rents U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | 40th-percentile gross rents by bedroom count | Federal calculation from ACS and other data Annual · Metro, county, ZIP (small-area) | 2 | Adding |
| Producer Price Index, construction inputs U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | Price trends for lumber, materials and inputs to residential construction | Federal index; API Monthly · National | 2 | Adding |
| Electric Power Monthly / RECS U.S. Energy Information Administration | Residential electricity prices by state; household energy use | Federal data; API Monthly / periodic · State | 2 | Adding |
| Selling Into the Sun Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Sale premium for homes with owned rooftop solar | ~22,000 sales in 8 states, hedonic models One-time study (2015) · Multi-state | 2 | Adding |
| Peer-reviewed studies of short-term rental pricing e.g., International Journal of Hospitality Management (Wang & Nicolau, 2017) | Which listing attributes are associated with nightly price | Hedonic regression across tens of thousands of listings As published · Multi-city | 2 | Adding |
| Texas Housing Insight Texas Real Estate Research Center, Texas A&M | Sales, prices and inventory for Texas metros | MLS data compiled by a university research center Monthly · Texas metros | 2 | Adding |
| Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers National Association of REALTORS® | What actual buyers and sellers did: search, financing, features, what sellers fixed | Annual survey of thousands of recent buyers Annual · National | 3 | Adding |
| Inside Airbnb Inside Airbnb (independent) | Snapshot of Airbnb listings: price, amenities, reviews, availability | Scraped public listing pages; listed price, not realized revenue Quarterly snapshots · Dallas and other cities | 5 | Adding |
Four tags
Every article carries exactly one tag, because the same project means different things to different owners.
How we are paid
Raise The Value is free to read and free to use. When you ask us to, we introduce you to contractors, real estate professionals and licensed mortgage professionals. Nobody pays us for an introduction, and we don't pay anyone for one. We do not quote rates, terms or prices, we do not represent you in a purchase or sale, and we do not originate loans.
Who publishes it
Raise The Value is published by Cedar Real Estate Solutions LLC d/b/a Raise The Value, based in Dallas–Fort Worth. We are an educational media company, not a mortgage lender, mortgage broker or real estate brokerage. Read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for the details.