More signs of recovery

The decline in consumer spending on home renovation projects is tapering off, and remodeling activity should start to pick up early next year, according to a just-released study by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The quarterly forecast pointed to several positive signs that could boost home improvement spending, causing a reversal in annual declines by the second quarter of 2010.

“Favorable financing costs -- for those households with access to credit -- and a pickup in homes sales are producing more opportunities for home improvement projects,” said Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. He noted, however, that several factors still impede remodeling growth. “A generally weak housing market with unstable prices, near-record levels of foreclosures and other distressed sales are discouraging households from undertaking nonessential remodeling projects.”