Kitchens edge bathrooms as most popular home remodeling project in 2016

Kitchen remodels were slightly more popular than bathroom upgrades in 2016, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

In a survey conducted for National Home Remodeling Month in May, NAHB found that 81 percent of remodelers said they commonly worked on kitchens last year. This share was slightly higher than bathrooms, which 80 percent of respondents said were commonly upgraded in their work.

Kitchen and bathroom upgrades have long been a popular choice among homeowners. Paul Emrath, writing for the NAHB blog Eye on Housing, says they have always been the top two choices since the remodeling survey was first issued in 2001.

Demand for both kitchen and bathroom remodeling fell during the housing downturn, with kitchen work experiencing a steeper decline. Both types of projects began trending upward again in 2012, but bathroom projects remained more popular than kitchens until the most recent survey.

Fifty-three percent of remodelers answering the survey said whole house remodeling was a popular request during 2016. This marked the first time since 2006 that more than half of the survey's respondents said anything other than kitchen or bath work was a common project for them in the previous year.

Remodelers were also busy with room additions, with 45 percent saying this had been a common job for them in 2016. Thirty-six percent said they were frequently asked to replace windows or doors, while 27 percent said they were often called to create a finished basement or repair property damage.

One in four remodelers said they had often been called to build decks. A similar share said they had commonly been hired to do a bathroom addition (24 percent), roofing (23 percent), add or enclose a porch (23 percent), or offer handyman services (22 percent).

Less popular remodeling requests included siding, which 19 percent of remodelers said was a common job; second story additions, cited by 16 percent; and enclosing or adding a garage, named as a common job by 12 percent of respondents. Only 9 percent said they were frequently called for historic preservation work, while 7 percent said they were often involved in finishing an attic.