The societal challenges we’ve faced over the past year have served as a collective reminder of the importance of being a good neighbor. Invitation Homes is proud to offer quality, updated houses in great neighborhoods and consistent, superior service to the growing share of Americans who are opting not to buy a house. And while we count the satisfaction of our residents as our foremost priority, we also dedicate significant time, energy, and resources to improving the communities where we operate. With the release of our 2020 Community Impact reports, we’re able to share Invitation Homes’ footprint in each of our 16 markets and show how our operations directly impact our communities, their residents, and the local economy.
Invitation Homes is a long-term investor in each of the markets where we operate. This starts with necessary and worthwhile investments in the properties we own . In 2020, we invested more than $397 million improving our homes to meet the desires of our current and prospective residents. Our care for homes begins as soon as we acquire the property and continues as long as we own the home. This past year we invested an average of $39,000 refreshing the new homes we purchased before a resident ever moved in, and over time, we have invested more than $2.4 billion in upfront renovations of our properties.
We also make sure our homes are maintained to the standards our residents have come to expect throughout our ownership. Our work includes routine repairs based on resident requests, proactive maintenance to routinely check all systems, and turns between residents to make sure our homes are in the best condition possible to welcome a new individual or family. Not only do these efforts raise the value of nearby homes and neighborhoods, but to complete this work we hire locally, employing more than 1,100 hard-working associates and contracting with hundreds of local professional service vendors nationwide. In 2020, we supported over 1,900 businesses across our 16 markets. We also paid over $117 million in salaries and benefits to our associates and more than $305 million in state and local taxes – money that gets invested back into local businesses, schools, infrastructure, and social services.
As we grow, so too does our team, and our 1,150 full-time associates work hard every day to deliver on our core values. One of those values is genuine care, which to us means doing the right thing, acting fast and friendly, and being the solution. This underscores all that we do, which is why we actively engage in a broad range of community and philanthropic activities, contribute to charitable organizations both nationwide and in our individual markets, and encourage each of our associates to be active in their communities with 20 hours of paid volunteer time each year. In 2020, we focused our community giving on the unique challenges facing our society: we prioritized giving to local organizations addressing the rising rates of food insecurity across the nation and to national social justice organizations working to make positive societal change.
As we navigated the unprecedented events of the past year , Invitation Homes adopted protocols to ensure residents, associates, and their surrounding communities remained safe. We also developed financial assistance programs to help residents facing economic hardships, and we paused acquisitions. Like many businesses, we weren’t sure what to expect as a result of the changing nature of our daily lives and habits, but we quickly realized that our product was in higher-than-ever demand due to people looking for more space.
As we look to the future, Invitation Homes is optimistic and anticipates a year of growth and expansion. We believe our strong resident satisfaction and lease renewal rate will continue to fuel positive momentum that will enable us to expand and meet the demand for our best-in-class platform. As our industry and business continues to grow, so will our support for residents, associates, and their communities.