Nobody plans a roof. Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies puts replacement projects (roofs, siding, windows, systems) at 49% of all homeowner improvement spending in 2023, and the median American home is now 44 years old. Replacement work is not a choice most owners make; it is a bill that arrives.
The bills are growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Surveys put the average household's spending on roofing and gutters at $375 in 2024, up from $90 in 2010; heating, air-conditioning and electrical work went from $124 to $449, and plumbing and water heating from $63 to $181. Those are averages across all U.S. households, renters included, so the figure for owners alone runs higher.
Chart: average annual spending per consumer unit on an owned home for heating, A/C and electrical work, roofing and gutters, and plumbing and water heating, 2010 to 2024, averaged over all consumer units. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys, retrieved October 2026.
What you can choose is the order, the material, and whether to do it before or after the house goes on the market. For that, there is data.
The replacement ranking
Eight replacement and systems projects are priced nationally, using Verisk XactRemodel job costs and resale estimates from real estate professionals in 119 markets, according to the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com). The complete tables are free at that address.
Only one of the eight returns more than it costs: fiber-cement siding replacement, at $21,485 with an estimated $24,420 of resale value added, or 113.7% recouped. Vinyl siding comes close, at $17,950 and 96.5%. The rest of the list (a backup generator, vinyl and wood windows, an HVAC conversion, and asphalt and metal roofs) returns less than it costs, from the mid-nineties down to about half. Three examples set the range: vinyl window replacement costs $22,073 and returns 75.5%; an asphalt-shingle roof costs $31,871 and returns 67.5%; a metal roof costs $51,865 and returns 50.1%.
NAR's 2025 Remodeling Impact Report, which uses a different method, contractor cost estimates and a survey of 4,005 Realtors, lands close by on the two it shares: vinyl windows recover 74%, wood windows 71%.
Three things the ranking says
Siding is the exception. Fiber-cement siding is the only replacement that returns more than it costs, and vinyl siding comes within four points. Siding is the one replacement a buyer sees from the street, which is the same reason the top of the whole 2025 ranking is exterior. It is also the one where the material choice changes the answer: fiber-cement costs $3,535 more than vinyl and returns $7,107 more.
Builders have already voted on the material. In 2005, vinyl was the principal exterior of 34% of new single-family homes completed and fiber cement of 9%; by 2025 vinyl was down to 26% and fiber cement up to 23%, with stucco at 26%, brick at 16% and wood at 6%, according to the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction.
Chart: principal exterior wall material of new single-family houses completed, share of all completions, 2005 to 2025, three largest materials shown; brick (16% in 2025), wood (6%) and other (2%) are not drawn. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Characteristics of New Housing, Survey of Construction, retrieved October 2026.
Windows and roofs return two-thirds to three-quarters. That is not a bad number for work you had to do anyway. It means a buyer pays for most, not all, of a replacement that was due. What the buyer will not pay for is the premium version: a metal roof costs $19,994 more than asphalt and adds $4,471 more value.
Nothing in this list is a value-add. Every project here replaces something that was already there. The buyer is not paying extra for new windows; the buyer is declining to discount the house for old ones. That is the right way to read a 67–76% recovery: the money you spend mostly prevents a bigger subtraction at the negotiating table.
The energy angle
Windows and HVAC carry a second effect the resale ratio does not capture: energy. Three datasets speak to it, and it is worth being precise about what each one shows.
- Buyers say they want it. In NAHB's 2024 What Home Buyers Really Want survey of more than 3,000 recent and prospective buyers, ENERGY STAR windows were rated essential or desirable by 83%, third on the entire list, behind only a laundry room and a patio. Energy-efficient appliances were at 80% (NAHB, Economics & Housing Policy Group, "Outdoor Features & a Laundry Room Among Most Wanted Features", Eye On Housing, April 3, 2024).
- Homeowners are spending on it. JCHS counts $139 billion of 2023 improvement spending as energy-related, nearly four times the 2003 level.
- Documented efficiency carries a measured premium. Freddie Mac compared roughly 70,000 homes with a HERS energy rating (rated 2013–2017) to unrated homes and found rated homes sold for 2.7% more than comparable unrated homes, and better-rated homes sold for 3–5% more than lower-rated ones. The least efficient rated tier showed no premium over unrated homes.
Put carefully: buyers say they want efficient windows, and homes with documented efficiency sell for more. Neither dataset measures the resale return on replacing one house's windows; that is the roughly three-quarters above. The energy evidence is a reason to prefer the efficient unit when a replacement is due, not a reason to replace windows that work.
What to do with this, by situation
Something has failed. Replace it; the ratio is not the point. Choose the standard version (asphalt over metal, vinyl or fiber-cement over anything exotic), because the premium version's extra cost is the part the buyer does not pay back.
Selling within two years, nothing has failed. Siding first if it is tired: it is the only replacement here that pays for itself, and NAR's 2025 report notes that 37% of Realtors recommend new roofing before listing, a condition item rather than a value play. Leave working windows alone.
Staying. Sequence by failure risk and energy cost, and take the efficient unit each time. The 2.7–5% premium for documented efficiency in Freddie Mac's data only applies if the efficiency is documented, with a rating or a certificate, so keep the paperwork.
The rule
Replacements don't raise the price. They stop the discount. Buy the standard version, keep the receipts, and put the exterior first.
The pattern across the full ranking, including the five projects that return more than they cost, is in The 2025 Renovation ROI Rankings. The pre-listing list from NAR's Realtor survey is in Before You List.