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Housing Perspectives

Research, trends, and perspective from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

Remodeling Spending Growth to Slow in Most Major Metros in 2019

Annual gains in homeowner spending on improvements are expected to moderate across more than half of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas in 2019, according to new projections released today. While no major metros are projected to see spending levels decline in 2019, our model indicates that the pace of spending by homeowners will slow in 29 of the 49 major metros tracked relative to their estimated 2018 gains. Indeed, annual growth in improvement expenditures is projected to fall to the lowest rate in three years in nearly half (22) of these metros. Metros with cooling home prices and sales activity are not able to sustain the same pace of investment in home improvements as in recent years. Our projections show especially pronounced slowing in markets such as San Antonio, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Dallas.

Despite the broader deceleration, remodeling gains should remain strong and even accelerate through year-end in some areas of the country including Orlando and Las Vegas where remodeling permitting, house prices, and homebuilding have picked up. Regionally, the strongest growth in 2019 is expected to be among metros in the West, paced by projected growth of 8 percent or more in Sacramento, Denver, Seattle, Tucson, San Jose, and Las Vegas.

 

The Joint Center for Housing Studies’ Metro Area Home Improvement Projections are released annually in the Spring and provide a short-term outlook of home improvement spending to owner-occupied homes across 50 major metropolitan areas. The indicator, developed with biennial estimates from the American Housing Survey, is designed to project the annual rate of change in spending for the current quarter and subsequent four quarters, and is intended to help identify future turning points in the local business cycles of the home improvement industry.