Is DIY Really Declining? What Harvard’s Numbers Tell Contractors

In September, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies published an analysis of federal survey data through 2023, showing that the do-it-yourself share of home improvement spending had fallen from 23.8% in 1995 to 15.9%, a new low for a series that starts in 1995.¹ It’s an easy number to read as proof that homeowners are hiring more.

Some of it may be. But the number measures dollars, not decisions, and the two sides aren’t counted the same way. DIY spending includes only what the homeowner paid for materials. Spending on professional work includes labor, materials, profit and overhead.¹ If the price of hiring a contractor rose faster than the price of materials over those years, the professional share of spending would rise even if homeowners hired exactly as often as before. Harvard’s analysis doesn’t separate the two effects, so neither can we. What a contractor can take from it is narrower, and more useful, than “DIY is dying”.

What a share of spending can and can’t show

The figures are in real dollars, adjusted for general inflation. Between 1995 and 2023, professional spending grew 157%, from $132.7 billion to $340.5 billion, while DIY spending grew 55%, from $41.5 billion to $64.5 billion.¹ Part of that gap could be more work going to professionals. Part could be each professional job costing more. A general inflation adjustment doesn’t distinguish between them.

The most recent stretch shows the same ambiguity. Between 2021 and 2023, real DIY spending fell 13% from its pandemic peak while real professional spending rose 14%, which Harvard describes as the DIY share quickly reverting to trend.¹ Because DIY spending is materials, that fall fits homeowners doing less themselves, or materials getting cheaper in real terms. The data can’t say which.

So the professional share of the money has grown, homeowners still spent $64.5 billion on their own projects in 2023, and how much of the change is behavior rather than price is an open question.

Where the share fell, and where it didn’t

The breakdowns show where the share moved. The same caveat applies to every row, since DIY is still materials only within each one. Harvard reports two breakdowns separately, by project type and by homeowner age, without a combined view.¹

Source: Luna Xu, Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, September 21, 2026, from HUD’s American Housing Surveys.¹

Remodeling’s DIY share fell by about twelve points. Replacement’s fell much less, by about three and a half. Homeowners under 35 kept the highest DIY share of any age group, but it dropped the furthest.

For replacement trades, the competition is other professionals

Harvard’s examples of replacement work are roofing, windows and HVAC, and it describes them as projects that “generally require professional expertise”. The category as a whole was about 87% professional spending in 2023, and a little over 83% in 1995.¹ It isn’t broken out by trade. Interior replacements sit in the same bucket as roofs and furnaces, so a single trade’s figure could be higher or lower. Of the four long-run trends Harvard says “may help explain” the shift, it ties one directly to this kind of work: an aging housing stock that generates more demand for roofing, plumbing and system repairs.¹

Our reading is that for most replacement work, the homeowner’s question was settled long ago. They aren’t deciding whether to hire someone to replace a roof. They’re deciding whom. That has a practical edge. Messaging built around “don’t try this yourself” speaks to a small part of the money in replacement work, while everything a homeowner uses to compare professionals, from reviews and service area to clear details and pricing, speaks to almost all of it. We looked at what that comparison turns on in What Homeowners Check Before They Call a Contractor.

Where hiring is still a decision

Remodeling is different. Its DIY share was higher and fell further, and the youngest homeowners, who still have the highest DIY share of spending, moved the most. Harvard doesn’t report the two together, so we can’t say how many of those dollars were young homeowners’ remodels. Our reading is that both point at the same thing: in remodel-type work, and among younger owners, whether to hire at all is still a live question.

A homeowner asking it wants to understand the job before deciding: what’s involved, what goes wrong when it’s done badly, and, if you’re willing to give one, a typical price range and what moves it. That’s a different page from one written for someone who has already decided to hire. If you do remodel-type work, those are the questions worth answering in your own words, because you know the jobs.

Sources

1. Luna Xu, “Home Improvement Spending Has Shifted Away from DIY”, Housing Perspectives, Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, September 21, 2026. JCHS tabulations of HUD’s American Housing Surveys, 1995–2023, in 2023 dollars adjusted by the CPI-U. Independent academic research. Read via the Internet Archive’s October 2026 snapshot, because the site refuses automated requests.