JCHS says home improvement growth will remain strong
Solid home improvement and maintenance expenditures growth is expected over the coming year, according to the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) of Harvard University.
The latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA), released this morning by the JCHS, projects that year-over-year gains in annual improvement and repair spending will reach 9% in the fourth quarter and maintain that pace into 2022.
“Residential remodeling continues to benefit from a strong housing market with elevated home construction and sales activity and immense house price appreciation in markets across the country,” says Carlos Martín, project director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Center. “The rapid expansion of owners’ equity is likely to fuel demand for more and larger remodeling projects into next year.”
LIRA provides a short-term outlook of national home improvement and repair spending to owner-occupied homes. The indicator, measured as an annual rate-of-change of its components, is designed to project the annual rate of change in spending for the current quarter and subsequent four quarters.
“With these tailwinds, annual improvement and repair expenditures by homeowners could reach $400 billion by the third quarter of 2022,” says Abbe Will, associate project director of the Remodeling Futures Program. “Yet there are several headwinds that could still taper the expected growth in remodeling spending including the rising costs of labor and building materials, as well as increasing interest rates.”
The complete report from the JCHS is available here.