Home sales and new home construction are down and foreclosures are up in many markets, the Wall Street Journal reports today. In times like these, instead of trading up, consider upgrading the home you have. The good news is that there are many spruce-ups that won’t break the bank or take lots of time. And some energy saving projects qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $1,500 to help defray the cost. 

But where should you start? Here are twelve projects, featured in the June issue of our sister publication ShopSmart, that offer the most bang for your buck. (Download ShopSmart Smart Summer Upgrades)

For each project we tell you how to spot a problem and how to fix it and, when appropriate, suggest the equipment that performed best in our tests. Some projects are as simple as upgrading your outdoor lighting or improving your front door and entryway. For the more extensive and expensive projects, we offer typical payback percentages based on information from a poll of real-estate pros done by Remodeling magazine. For example, the typical payback for fixing your deck is 81 percent. Lisa Freeman, ShopSmart's editor, explained it all recently on Good Morning America.

Illustration by Laurent Cilluffo