Colorado Homeowners Can Get the Biggest Bang for their Home-Improvement Buck with These Projects

Get The Biggest Bang for Your Buck with These Home Improvements

It’s a good time to own Home Depot stock. Or a hardware store. Or a contracting business.

America is in the middle of a home renovation bonanza, according to research from Golden-based HomeAdvisor.

The average homeowner invested $6,649 in home improvements between March 2017 and March 2018, according to HomeAdvisor’s True Cost survey. That’s up $1,492 over 2017, itself a year in which HomeAdvisor’s annual survey tracked an $1,850 jump in consumer spending on home improvements.

The craze is multi-generational. Millennials completed more projects than any other age group, even if they spent 32 percent less on average compared to their baby boomer counterparts. Roughly eight out of every 10 millennial homeowners surveyed said they plan to spend more money on home improvements in 2018-2019 than they did in 2017-2018.

Driving the movement to stay put and fix up rather than move out are some issues Colorado home seekers know all too well at this point: A lack of homes for sale (though a recent survey shows inventory growing in the Denver metro area) and correspondingly high costs of available homes, observers say.

“Mobility rates are ticking down and I think there are a variety of factors to that,” HomeAdvisor home expert Dan DiClerico said. “With the combination of home prices and interest rates ticking up, it just doesn’t make sense for people to move at this particular moment.”


With dozens of possible projects in every home, DiClerico has some recommendation on how homeowners can best invest their hard-earned dough to bump up their home’s value should the time to sell come.

The best place to start is the kitchen. Although the 2017-2018 survey found the average kitchen remodel cost $22,145, even a much cheaper update could significantly boost a home’s value. New appliances, counter tops and flooring can be had for a combined $4,000, DiClerico said, and raise a home’s value by thousands of dollars.
“A smart, cosmetic kitchen renovation makeover like that could raise a home’s value 5 percent,” he said.

Once the new fridge is humming and new kitchen counter tops have been buffed to a glossy shine, the next best way to boost a home’s value is by turning unfinished space into livable space. While he puts the average cost of finishing a basement at around $7,500, again DiClerico says a more thrifty remodeling project can have a significant impact on value. Start with upgrading the lighting if the basement is in decent shape already, DiClerico said.
“Depending on the current condition of the space, if it doesn’t need to be fully redone, you could be in and out for a couple of thousand dollars,” DiClerico said.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/09/08/colorado-money-saving-home-improvement-projects/