Landscaping Top-10 Home-Improvement Priority

Landscaping ranks eighth nationally in top home-improvement priorities, according to a study conducted by Houzz, ''an online community for home design enthusiasts.'' The study took place from January to December, 2011. Houzz monitored the activity of 10,000 to 50,000 of their website and app users from each of 50 selected North American metropolitan areas.

The data from the survey gave feedback on 21 main home-improvement goals. Below are the top 10.

1. Kitchen
2. Bathroom
3. Living Room
4. Bedroom
5. Exterior
6. Dining Room
7. Family Room
8. Landscaping
9. Kids
10. Entry

There was a wide divergence in how important landscaping was for residences in different areas.

Landscaping ranked highest (5th or 6th) in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle and San Francisco.

In Minneapolis and Boston, landscaping dropped to the tenth spot and in New York and Chicago, landscaping fell off the list entirely. Although landscaping did not rank as highly as designing a new living room, it's more popular than decking out the patio or installing a wine cellar.