COST OF HOME REPAIRS INCREASES BY 5.5% FROM Q4 2022
Price increases slowing nationally after surging due to supply chain disruption and increased demand during COVID-19 pandemic
The cost of home repairs and remodeling in the fourth quarter of 2023 continued to increase, rising by 0.54% from the prior quarter and just over 5.5% from the fourth quarter of 2022 according to the Q4 2023 Verisk Remodel Index. Costs set new highs for the past decade, rising over 65% from the first quarter of 2013.
The Verisk Remodel Index tracks costs on 31 different categories of home repair, comprising over 10,000 line items ranging from appliances to windows. Data are compiled monthly in over 430 local market areas across the country.
“Repair costs continue to rise, but the rate of increase appears to be slowing down,” said Greg Pyne, VP, Pricing for Verisk Property Estimating Solutions. “At an annual increase of 5.5%, this is the slowest pace of cost increases since the second quarter of 2020, when prices rose by 4.8% from the prior year. Since then, due to the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on supply chains, product demand, and labor shortages, annual cost increases haven’t been lower than 6.1%. But since peaking at 12.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021, the rate of price increases has gradually been slowing down, and will probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
Costs rose in all but one of the 31 categories included in the report, both quarterly and annually. The exception was the cost of framing and rough carpentry, one of the biggest costs for builders and remodelers, which was down by about 0.75% from the previous quarter, but still up by 1.5% from a year earlier. Pyne noted that while all other categories showed rising prices, many of the increases were minimal, often less than 1%.
“It may be worth noting that remodeling cost increases appear to be largely in synch with rising home prices,” added Pyne. “The most recent Case-Shiller Index said that home prices rose by about 5.1% compared to the prior year, and the Freddie Mac Home Price Index reported a 6.6% increase during the same time period.”
New England Region Shows Highest Quarterly Increase; East North Central and Mountain States Have Highest Annual Gains
All regions again experienced cost increases both quarterly and annually, but unlike the numbers cited in the Q3 2023 Verisk Remodel Index, all of the regions reported quarterly increases of less than 1%. The New England Region saw costs rise by 0.74% compared to the second quarter. The East North Central Region (6.57%) and Mountain Region (6.3%) had the highest rate of annual cost increases. The Mountain Region continued to have the highest overall cost increases over the ten-year span covered by the index, rising 70 points since the beginning of 2013. The South Atlantic Region had the lowest quarterly (0.41%) and annual (5.1%) cost increases. The West South Central Region also had a 5.1% annual increase, and has risen the least (59.47 points) since the beginning of the tracking period.
| Q2-Q3 2023 | Q3-Q4 2023 | Q4 2022-2023 | |
| East North Central | 1.5% | 0.51% | 6.57% |
| East South Central | 1.6% | 0.49% | 5.2% |
| Mid-Atlantic | 1.9% | 0.61% | 5.7% |
| Mountain | 1.8% | 0.59% | 6.3% |
| New England | 1.5% | 0.74% | 6.1% |
| Pacific | 1.9% | 0.53% | 5.5% |
| South Atlantic | 1.5% | 0.41% | 5.1% |
| West North Central | 1.7% | 0.48% | 5.3% |
| West South Central | 1.4% | 0.61% | 5.1% |
Northeastern States Have Both the Highest and Lowest Rates of Increase
New Hampshire had the highest quarterly rate of increase in the country at 1.58%, the only state to surpass a one percent increase for the reporting period. Arkansas (0.99%), Colorado (0.96%) and Connecticut (0.94%) barely missed that threshold. Other states with relatively high rates of quarterly increases included Wyoming (0.84%), New York (0.85%), Arizona (0.72%), Hawaii (0.69%), Indiana (0.63%), and Maine (0.61%).
Rhode Island had the lowest rate of cost increases at 0.22%, followed by West Virginia (0.27%), Washington DC (0.33%), New Mexico (0.33%), Florida (0.35%), Wisconsin (0.37%), Utah (0.39%), South Carolina (0.39%), Maryland (0.41%) and North Dakota (0.42%).
Contact: Rick Sharga
CJ Patrick Company
(949) 322-4583
