Which US Cities Have the Highest Remodeling Costs in 2026
- Jun 14, 2026
- 7 min read
The same kitchen remodel. Same scope of work, same material quality. In Honolulu, that project runs about $40,000. In Wichita Falls, Texas, it’s closer to $20,000. That 2-to-1 gap isn’t contractor markup or material choices. It’s just location.
We looked at 301 US cities with enough ZIP codes for a stable average, applied construction wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and local home value data from Zillow, and ranked them by 2026 remodeling cost. Here’s what the data shows.
A Kitchen Remodel Costs Twice as Much in Some Cities as Others
The spread across those 301 cities runs from $19,900 for a midrange kitchen in Wichita Falls to $40,000 in Honolulu. That’s a $20,000 difference on a single project, and it’s driven entirely by where you live.
Roofing follows the same pattern. A full replacement in Honolulu runs about $17,000. The same job in Wichita Falls is around $8,500. Same project, same shingle choices, half the price.
See the full city rankings and download the free 2026 dataset →
| City | State | Kitchen midpoint |
|---|---|---|
| Honolulu | HI | $40,000 |
| San Jose | CA | $39,500 |
| San Francisco | CA | $39,500 |
| Boston | MA | $39,100 |
| Seattle | WA | $39,300 |
| … | ||
| Houston | TX | $27,800 |
| San Antonio | TX | $25,200 |
| Fort Smith | AR | $20,000 |
| Wichita Falls | TX | $19,900 |
The Most Expensive Cities Are All on a Coast
Every city in the top 25 most expensive markets is in a coastal state. Not most of them. All 25.
Honolulu leads. San Jose, Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond, and San Francisco cluster right behind it at $39,500 for a midrange kitchen. The Bay Area is basically its own cost tier. Boston comes in at $39,100. Then Seattle and its suburbs (Bellevue, Renton, Puyallup) at $39,300.
Portland, Oregon lands at $38,200. Denver, which isn’t coastal but behaves like a high-demand coastal metro in terms of labor and home prices, hits $35,700.
The common thread isn’t proximity to water. It’s labor costs and home values. In these cities, both are elevated. They push remodeling costs up together, and neither one lets the other stay low.
The Cheapest Markets Are Mostly in the South and Midwest
The bottom of the list looks different. Wichita Falls, TX ($19,900 kitchen midpoint), Fort Smith, AR ($20,000), Columbus, GA ($20,000), Laredo, TX ($20,100), and Lubbock, TX ($20,300) sit at the bottom of the 301 cities we analyzed.
Memphis, which tends to show up in national affordability comparisons, comes in at $21,100 for a kitchen and $9,000 for roofing. That’s less than a quarter of what roofing costs in Honolulu.
These markets share two things: construction wages are below the national median, and home values are low enough that contractor pricing is compressed from the top end. When your service area’s median home is worth $170,000, you can’t charge Bay Area prices and win bids.
The Sun Belt Isn’t as Cheap as People Expect
This is where the data gets interesting. The assumption that Sun Belt cities mean lower renovation costs isn’t consistently true.
Phoenix runs $35,000 for a midrange kitchen, which puts it ahead of Chicago ($34,900). Austin is at $33,100. Tampa is $32,900, Dallas $32,800. None of those are bargain markets.
The Sun Belt cities that actually come in cheap are the lower-income metros. Houston is right at the national median: $27,800 for a kitchen. San Antonio is below it at $25,200. Jacksonville, FL lands at $25,600.
So if you’re in Phoenix or Austin expecting Sun Belt pricing, you’re in the wrong Sun Belt city. The gap between Phoenix and San Antonio is almost $10,000 on a kitchen remodel alone.
Why Location Moves the Price This Much
Two inputs drive local remodeling costs: construction labor wages and local home values.
Labor wages account for about 45% of most project costs, and they vary significantly by metro. A journeyman carpenter in San Jose earns considerably more per hour than one in Fort Smith. That gap flows directly into every bid you get.
Home values matter for a subtler reason. Markets with high home values support higher contractor pricing. When homes in your service area are worth $900,000, bids can reflect that. When they’re worth $170,000, the market sets a lower ceiling for what homeowners will pay, and contractor pricing adjusts down.
In the most expensive cities, both factors are elevated at the same time. High wages plus high home values produce the Honolulu and Bay Area numbers. In the cheapest markets, both are low. That’s why the gap ends up being 2-to-1.
The Cost vs. Value 2025 report captures some of this city-level variation across roughly 150 US metros. The data here covers 301, with ZIP-level resolution available for most markets.
What This Means for Your Project Budget
If you’re in a high-cost market, the national averages on most renovation sites are probably understating what your project will cost. A “typical kitchen remodel” figure built from national data lands around $27,000. In the Bay Area or Boston, start at $39,000 and work from there.
The flip side is that cheap markets come with their own ceiling. A $20,000 kitchen remodel in Wichita Falls adds resale value against homes priced at the local median. But if comparable sales in that market are capped at $180,000, there’s only so much a renovation can return regardless of quality.
Location also changes how much tariff-driven cost increases actually hurt. The same 20% cabinet price increase that adds $2,000 to a Fort Smith kitchen adds $4,000 to a San Jose kitchen. How tariffs are affecting renovation budgets in 2026 goes deeper on that math.
The starting point for any renovation budget is your city’s cost index, not a national average. The gap between the most and least expensive markets is too wide to paper over with a rule of thumb.
