Strong gains in home remodeling and repair activity are expected to ease moving into next year, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
The LIRA projects that annual growth in home improvement and repair expenditure this year will remain above its long-term trend of 5%, but will decline steadily from 7.3% in the first quarter to 6.1% by the first quarter of 2018.
“Homeowners are continuing to spend more on improvements as house prices strengthen in most parts of the country,” said Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies. “Yet, recent slowdowns in home sales activity and remodeling permitting suggests improvement spending gains will lose some steam over the course of the year.”
“The remodeling market is approaching a cyclical slowdown after several years of steady recovery,” added Abbe Will, research analyst in the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center. “While the rate of growth is starting to trend down, national remodeling expenditures by homeowners are projected to reach almost $320 billion by early next year.”
