NAHB Remodelers Cost of Doing Business 2026 (FY 2024) — 6.3% net margin (highest since 1996), avg revenue $2.7M

Claim: The 2026 edition of NAHB's Remodelers' Cost of Doing Business Study (covering fiscal year 2024) reports:

• Average net profit margin: 6.3% — the highest since 1996.
• Average revenue: $2.7 million.
• Trade contractor costs declined from 36% of revenue in 2021 to 30% in 2024, driving most of the margin recovery.

Source: NAHB Remodelers, Cost of Doing Business Study, 2026 edition.

Confidence: Verified.

For Candid — the take-home calculation: A residential GC running on a 6–11% net margin views every dollar of overhead through the lens that one in ten of those dollars is owner take-home. A $3,000/month marketing retainer ($36,000/year) is, on a $3M-revenue GC at 8% margin ($240,000 net), 15% of the owner's pre-tax take-home. The retainer is not a marketing-budget question; it is a household-income question. This is structurally why marketing reads as larger than it numerically is. Used heavily in [[rule-be-explicit-about-marketing-cannot-do]].