Good news for remodelers! According to a new report, remodeling activity continues to grow with rising home values and will peak by the second half of 2017. The report comes from the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) by the Remodeling Futures Program at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
The LIRA forecasts that annual growth in home renovation and repair projects will continue to increase throughout 2016 and surpass 8% by the second quarter of 2017. Managing Director Chris Herbert attributes the continued increase to rising home values and tightening for-sale inventories.
In a press release, researcher Abbe Will notes, “At $327 billion annually, the homeowner improvement and repair market will surpass its previous inflation-adjusted peak from 2006.”
This latest report continues last quarter’s report from April 2016 reporting increases on remodeling projects. The next LIRA report will be released on January 19, 2017.
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, and is intended to help identify future turning points in the business cycle of the home improvement and repair industry."
