LAS VEGAS -- The remodeling sector is the Rodney Dangerfield of the construction industry: It gets no respect.

Or at least not enough, says William Apgar, senior scholar at the Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

When housing starts are announced, it's a lead story in the business section of most newspapers. But when figures related to additions and alterations are released, the news rarely rates a line or two, Apgar complained at the National Association of Home Builders' annual convention here last month.

And that's too bad, said the assistant secretary housing at the Department of Housing and Urban development under Andrew Cuomo. Because remodeling is "a co-equal partner in what housing is doing to sustain the economy."

According to new research by the Joint Center, remodeling is a $214 billion "stealth industry flying below the radar screen of most macro-economic analysts."

Released at the convention, the study found that expenditures to improve, maintain and repair the nation's 119 million homes accounted for 40 percent of all construction spending in 2001. That's "fully" 2.1 percent of total national economic activity.

"The importance of the home remodeling industry to the U.S. economy cannot be overstated," said Kermit Baker, director of the Joint Center's Remodeling Future Program.

Apgar also reported that even though nearly half of all improvements were paid for with equity owners have built up in their homes in their homes over the years, families are not necessarily over-extending themselves for bigger and better kitchens and baths.

In fact, siting the annual "Cost Vs. Value" study by "Remodeling," a trade journal, the Harvard scholar pointed out that in most regions of the country, 80-90 percent of everything owners spend on their homes "comes back to them in the form of higher home prices."

The Joint Center found that in 2001, owners spent more than $2,300 on average to protect and improve what for most is their most important financial asset.

They tend to spend the most within two years of moving into their homes. In fact, buyers typically spend twice as much as non-moving households, and those who are trading up from one home to another spent 50 more than first-time buyers.

Remodeling activity tends to be concentrated, with the top ten metro areas for home improvement spending accounting for more than 30 percent of the total. But in the Northeast, where homes are older and construction opportunities are limited, spending on home improvements exceeds spending on new construction.

And just as minorities are a growing share of home owners, so, too, are they becoming a bigger part of remodeling. Their spending on home improvements is growing at nearly twice the rate pf white households, with Hispanics leading the way.

Since 1995, home improvement spending by Hispanic households zoomed by what the report called "an impressive" 78 percent.

However, according to the latest figures from the National Association of Home Builders, professional remodeling switched into lower gear at the end of last year as residential property owners put off significant additions and improvements in response to weaker economic conditions and seasonal factors.

"Remodelers reported a fairly weak amount of activity near the end of what was overall a very strong year for home improvements," said Bill Owens, a Columbus, Ohio contractor who chairs the NAHB Remodelors' Council.

Owens said that while some of the decline was undoubtedly due to owners' decisions to delay property improvements in light of economic jitters, it's not unusual for fewer remodeling jobs to be getting underway in the winter months and during the holidays.

According to the latest NAHB Remodeling Market Index (RMI), contractors reported a fairly weak amount of activity near the end of what was overall a very strong year for home improvements.

But looking ahead, Owens said he's encouraged the "vast majority" of remodelers queried for the RMI "are expecting solid dollar volumes and profit margins in 2003."