What this is
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, and we publish it in a form you can check.
We are an educational media company. We are not a mortgage lender, a mortgage broker or a real estate brokerage, we do not originate loans, and nothing here is financial, legal or investment advice. When you ask us to, we introduce you to licensed professionals. That is the whole business.
The standard
Every number on this site meets four tests before it is published.
- It comes from a primary source we have checked. A named report, survey or peer-reviewed study, not a summary of one, and not a number someone repeated in a video. If we cannot trace a figure to its origin, it does not go in.
- It carries its method. Who was asked, what was measured, when, and how many. A "267.7% return" means nothing without knowing it is an estimate by real estate professionals of a buyer's premium on a national-average job cost. That is the garage door's figure, according to the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com).
- It says "can," not "will." Every figure here is an average or an estimate. A garage door that returns 267.7% nationally may return more or less on your street. The data tells you where to look first; it does not tell you what your house will sell for.
- It is corrected in public. When we find an error, we fix it and say so on the page. If you find one, email us; the address is at the bottom of every issue.
The sources we use most, and what each one actually measures:
| Source | What it measures | Who is asked | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report (Zonda) | Estimated resale value of 28 remodeling projects vs. their job cost, in 119 U.S. markets | Real estate professionals (value); Verisk XactRemodel (cost) | Annual, 38 editions |
| NAR / NARI, Remodeling Impact Report | Cost recovery and homeowner satisfaction ("Joy Score") for interior projects | 4,005 REALTORS®, 806 homeowners, 177 remodelers (2025) | Periodic |
| NAR / NALP, Remodeling Impact Report: Outdoor Features | Cost recovery and Joy Scores for outdoor projects | 2,620 REALTORS®, 160 landscape firms (2023) | Periodic |
| Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Improving America's Housing | Size and shape of the U.S. remodeling market | National spending data | Biennial |
| NAHB, What Home Buyers Really Want | Features buyers rate essential, desirable or unwanted | 3,000+ recent and prospective buyers (2024) | Periodic |
| Zillow Research | Buyer and renter behavior; sale-price effects of specific features | Large-sample surveys and transaction analysis | Ongoing |
| Peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics) | Controlled measurements, curb appeal for instance | Academic studies | As published |
Why the numbers matter more than usual right now
Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies puts U.S. remodeling spending above $600 billion a year, with the typical homeowner spending almost $4,700 on improvements in 2023 and the median home now 44 years old. Houzz's 2025 study, a survey of 21,889 Houzz users including nearly 11,000 renovating U.S. homeowners, found a median renovation spend of $20,000 in 2024, down from $24,000 in 2023, paid mostly from savings (84%), with 29% using credit cards and 12% using a loan secured by the home (Source: Houzz, 2025 U.S. Houzz & Home Study).
That is a lot of money going into decisions that are usually 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.
The money is already moving. Americans spent $505 billion at building-material and garden stores in 2025, up from $311 billion in 2014, according to the Census Bureau's Monthly Retail Trade Survey. Most of it is spent without a number attached to the decision. This site exists to attach one.
Chart: annual sales of building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (NAICS 444), billions of dollars, not seasonally adjusted, 2014 to 2025. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Monthly Retail Trade Survey, retrieved October 2026.
How to get the most out of it
Find your tag. Every article carries exactly one of four tags, because the same project means different things to different owners:
- 🏠 Primary Home: you live there. What buyers pay more for at resale, and when to buy the joy instead.
- 🏘 Rental Property: you own it, someone else lives there. Vacancy, turnovers, income, what holds up.
- 🏡 Airbnb / STR: guests live there by the night. Listing photos, ratings, what to measure yourself.
- 🔨 Fix & Flip: nobody lives there yet. Highest-ROI projects, in order, and where to stop.
Read your tag first. The others are there when your situation changes.
Ask three questions of any number, ours included. Who was asked? What exactly was measured? How old is it? Every article here answers all three in its Sources section. Any source that cannot is giving you an opinion with a percent sign on it.
Use national figures as a starting point, not a verdict. The ranking tells you which projects to price first. Your local quotes and your local comparable sales decide the rest. When an article gives you a formula instead of a number (payback years, vacancy cost per day), that is deliberate: it is the part only you can fill in.
Subscribe. One finding a week, Tuesdays, with the numbers shown and the sources listed. Free, and you can leave any time.
How we connect you with professionals
At the bottom of every page is a short form. Here is exactly what happens when you use it.
Who we introduce. Three kinds of professionals:
- Contractors: renovation professionals, starting in Dallas–Fort Worth and expanding market by market. We feature one per specialty per market and we talk to them before we introduce anyone.
- Real estate professionals: agents and brokers who work with the kind of owner you are, including investors.
- Licensed mortgage professionals: for renovation or investment financing, licensed in your state. We do not originate loans; we introduce you to someone who is licensed to.
What happens next. We read what you wrote, and usually we ask one question back: what is the project, and when do you want it done? Then we introduce you to the right person. You are never obligated to use anyone we introduce, and you can tell us to stop contacting you at any time.
What we do not do. We do not quote rates, terms or prices for anyone. We do not represent you in a purchase or sale. We do not guarantee any outcome: not a renovation's return, not a loan, not a sale. The data is the data, and the professionals are the professionals.
How we are paid. We aren't. Raise The Value is free to read and free to use. Nobody pays us for an introduction, and we don't pay anyone for one.
The one rule we can give everyone
If you can see it from the street, the data says it pays. If you can only see it from the kitchen table, you are paying for it. Everything else on this site is the evidence behind that sentence, and the exceptions to it.
Begin with the flagship: The 2025 Renovation ROI Rankings. Then find your tag.