The amount of money spent on home improvements and repairs dropped between 2011 and 2013, according to an analysis of United States Census Bureau data by the National Association of Home Builders. The largest share of spending went toward roofing work, while flooring improvement was the most common job.

The information for the report came from the American Housing Survey. This survey, which is sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is conducted every other year to gather information on the housing stock in the United States.

Rose Quint, summarizing the findings for the NAHB blog Eye on Housing, says 126.9 million households spent $149.88 billion on home renovations in 2013. This figure marked a 16 percent decrease from 2011, when Americans spent $177.72 billion on work to upgrade their homes.

Home improvement spending has been decreasing since 2007, when homeowners paid $226.91 billion on renovations to their property. This figure fell to $185.57 billion in 2009. Quint says that in the past decade, expenditures for home improvements as reported by the American Housing Survey were only lower than the 2013 figure in 2003, when homeowners spent $128.15 billion on this work.

A total of $18.21 billion, or about 12 percent of all home improvement spending in 2013, went toward roofing jobs. Kitchen work accounted for $12.99 billion in spending, while $12.18 billion was spent on disaster repairs.

Quint says the same three categories accounted for the most spending in 2011, including $21.94 billion for roofing jobs, $16.96 billion on kitchen work, and $12.16 billion for disaster repairs. Bathroom renovations were the third costliest job in 2009 at $11.28 billion, while this work had the fourth highest spending in 2013 at $9.26 billion.

Homeowners in 2013 spent the least amount of money on carport additions to their home, with $227 million going toward this work. Adding or replacing a garbage disposal was the next most uncommon spending item at $256 million, followed by adding or replacing a septic tank at $446 million.

Quint says spending in most areas decreased between 2011 and 2013, but some areas had significant increases. Spending for bedroom additions increased 80 percent to $4.2 billion, the creation of a bedroom via alterations to the structure increased 21 percent to $1.12 billion, and bathroom additions increased 9 percent to $950 million.

The renovation most frequently started by homeowners in 2013 was the addition of new flooring, with 10.3 million households conducting this work. This was followed by work on plumbing fixtures, which 9.4 million households completed, and adding or replacing windows or doors, a job undertaken by 8.6 million households.

The least frequent home improvements were adding or altering a kitchen, building a carport onto the home, or adding or altering an attached garage. Approximately 100,000 households completed work in each category.