The highly respected survey, now celebrating its 20th anniversary, has become an invaluable tool for both homeowners and professional remodeling contractors. The exhaustive REMODELING study analyzes the cost vs. value of projects in nine different regions and 60 U.S. cities.

On a regional basis, fiber cement siding replacement had another strong showing, ranking as the #1 project on a cost vs. value basis in six of nine geographical areas in the country. They are:

East North Central Region
West South Central Region
Middle Atlantic Region
West North Central Region
South Atlantic Region
East South Central Region

Of the remaining three regions, fiber cement siding finished in the top 5 remodeling projects for return on investment in all of them—an improvement from last year's standings. The return on investment in these regions were: 82.6% (mountain), 86.5% (New England), and 100.9% (Pacific).

New Website and Free Reports Introduced
Coinciding with the release of its 2007 Cost vs. Value Report, REMODELING unveiled a new website (costvsvalue.com) dedicated to the popular annual survey. The publication also announced that for the first time, data from the 60 cities (and the nine regions) are available online at no charge, once the user completes a basic registration. Previously, the reports were only available on a pay-per-view status. Reports are downloaded in PDF format.

"Making the city data available free online means our readers will be able to find the data they need more quickly and easily," said Sal Alfano, editorial director of REMODELING. "We've also built-in some features that make the online tables more useful. Projects can be sorted alphabetically, by cost, or by percent of share returned."

As home prices continue to fall across the country, REMODELING's Cost vs. Value Report is a more important resource than ever. The survey helps homeowners select the best home remodeling projects from a financial standpoint, while giving contractors an accurate project cost in their area to see how their rates line up with that of the competition.

Check out the data at: http://www.costvsvalue.com

© 2007 Hanley Wood, LLC. Reproduced by permission. Complete city data from the Remodeling 2007 Cost vs. Value Report can be downloaded for free at www.costvsvalue.com.

Streetscapes Online, Volume 21 <