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Housing Perspectives

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

Further Strengthening Expected for Home Remodeling

Annual gains in homeowner improvement and maintenance spending are set to accelerate in the second half of the year and remain elevated through mid-year 2022, according to our latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA). The LIRA projects annual growth in home renovation and repair expenditures will reach 8.6 percent by the second quarter of next year.

Home remodeling will likely grow at a faster pace given the ongoing strength of home sales, house price appreciation, and new residential construction activity. A significant rise in permits for home improvements also indicates that owners are continuing to invest in bigger discretionary and replacement projects.

Larger gains in retail sales of building materials suggest the remodeling market continues to be lifted by DIY activity as well. By the middle of next year, annual remodeling expenditures to owner-occupied homes are expected to surpass $380 billion.

A year after the unprecedented changes to the US economy brought on by the pandemic, many economic indicators are showing extreme percent changes from pandemic-induced lows. To reduce the immense growth rate volatility generated by these year-over-year comparisons, the projection for 2022-Q2 utilizes smoothed data for two leading model inputs: residential remodeling permits and single-family housing starts. Using unsmoothed inputs in the LIRA model would have projected an unlikely annual growth rate roughly twice as large as reported. The Remodeling Futures Program will continue to monitor input volatility.

Column and line chart providing quarterly historical estimates and projections of homeowner improvement and repair spending from 2019-Q2 to 2022-Q2 as four-quarter moving sums and rates of change.

For more information, visit the LIRA page of our website.