A major media service, Arbitron, has recently shown that according to a study by Scarborough Research, on average, forty-nine percent of adults in seventy-five cities nationwide made some sort of diy home improvement in the last twelve months. This reveals that consumers in smaller markets may be more expected to tackle their own home improvements than those living in the larger cities.



Receiving the highest ranking at number one among the cities surveyed was Harrisburg, Penn.; where over half (or fifty nine percent) of the people started a home improvement project in the last year. Coming in at a close second was the city was Buffalo NY, where again over half of the cities residents claimed to doing their own home improvements. Another close contender was the city of Toledo OH.

The other cities that found themselves in the top ten were Detroit and Flint, MI; Syracuse, N.Y.; Atlanta, GA; Indianapolis; Rochester, N.Y.; and Cincinnati, OH. These were the cities in which over half of the residents in each market had started or recently made home improvements.

Do you want to know who came in last? Well, the people of Honolulu were the least likely to take on a do it yourself project, with just 37% fixing up their homes in the past year. This gave their city a ranking of 75 among those in the survey.

They certainly weren't the only ones not likely to participate in such projects. Additional big metropolitan cities where the residents apparently opted for hiring professionals include Fresno, CA at 40%; Las Vegas also at 40%; New York did a little better at 48%; Chicago was at 46%; Miami inched in at 45%; Los Angeles were even worse at 44%; Washington, D.C. at 44%; San Francisco was at 43%; and San Diego where only 42% of it's residents performed any sort of diy project.

Here's what else the study came up with. There were certain types of improvements that were popular than others. For instance, 25% or consumers had painted the interior of their homes and/or wallpapered. The same amount had done landscaping.

Good news for burglars suggests that only 2% had home security systems installed in their homes. Bad news for the neighborhood kids who are crazy from the heat, only 1% had added a spa or pool to their home.

The fact is simply that people of all walks of life are doing their own home improvements and spending the money that it takes to perform these tasks. This is good news for the centers that sell home improvement material, as well as for the economy which benefits from the extra flow of cash. Whether you do your own home improvements or not, making your home a more comfortable and relaxing goes along way for a happy healthier life.