California Ranks Among Most Expensive States To Renovate Your Home

CALIFORNIA — Californians eager to start a home improvement or renovation project now have a new factor to consider. California is now among the most expensive states for a remodel, according to recent rankings from Lawn Love.

The San Diego-based app helps connect homeowners with quotes and services, releasing some recent data to consider before your next project while also considering rising inflation, supply chain delays and labor shortages — home improvement projects are now getting pricier.

To reach the ranking, Lawn Love compared 200 cities based on 16 key indicators of renovation priciness, including pros’ hourly rates, the average age of homes, access to labor and supplies, and average household spending on home improvement.

California dominates the top five, 10, and 20, making it our most expensive state for home improvement.

Here are the 2022 most expensive cities for home improvement.

Despite having the highest average income among the 200 biggest U.S. cities, Sunnyvale is still the priciest city for home renovations. Labor costs and cost of living are the highest in this city, exacerbated by mediocre access to builders and suppliers.

Following Sunnyvale is San Jose at No. 2, San Francisco at No. 3, Fremont at No. 4, Pasadena at No. 5, Glendale at No. 6 and Oakland at No. 7. New York is ranked at No. 8. Torrance is ranked No. 9.

Fresno is among the most affordable California city for home upgrades.

Other Golden State cities have big spending power. Half of the top 10 cities with the highest average household incomes are in California. And, only eight of the 42 California cities ranked placed among the 50 percent of cities with the lowest incomes. High incomes generally translate to a higher cost of living, including the prices of materials and labor.

Lack of labor also remains a major problem.

"The Builder and Supply Access category of our ranking reveals a clear division between the Greater Los Angeles area and other big Cali metros: There’s far steeper competition for labor in LA due to a general lack of pros to serve the area," according to Lawn Love's website. "LA and its suburbs make up most of the top half of the category among Golden State cities."

See Lawn Love's list with full rankings and analysis.