Harvard JCHS: Remodeling Spending to Increase Slightly

After a modest downturn, homeowner expenditures for improvements and repairs are expected to trend up through the first half of 2025, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University reported.

Sharp Slowdown Expected in Home Remodeling

The Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, a quarterly forecast from the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., projects year-over-year growth in homeowner remodeling and repair spending to shrink from 16.1 percent in 2022 to 6.5 percent by the third quarter 2023. And The National Association of Home Builders Remodeling Market Index for the third quarter posted a 10-point year over year decline in the third quarter, falling to 77.

Pandemic a ‘Boon’ for Home Improvement

While the U.S; economy shrank by 3.5 percent in 2020, spending on home improvements and repairs grew more than 3 percent, to nearly $420 billion, as households modified living spaces for work, school and leisure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Improving America’s Housing 2021, a new report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

For Remodeling Market Outlook, an ‘Abrupt About-Face’

The coronavirus pandemic is taking its toll on many sectors of the housing market—and according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, the previously solid home remodeling market is about to take a hit as well.

Signs of Wavering in Remodeling Forecasts

Annual gains in homeowner spending for improvements and repairs are set to “give out” by the second half of next year, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity report from the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.