Despite a slowdown in housing activity, maintenance activity, driven by roofing repairs, saw an increase in year-over-year growth in July, according to the BuildFax Housing Health Report. According to the organization, roof maintenance activity rose nearly 16% year over year, reaching its highest levels since 2013.
The report, which leverages U.S. property condition and history data to deliver macro- and microeconomic trends, also includes a deep dive on roof maintenance activity, which is a primary driver for elevated maintenance this month. This spike in roof repairs is likely due to severe weather conditions in 2019.
“2019 housing activity has seen several months of significant declines across the existing housing supply,” said BuildFax COO Jonathan Kanarek. “However, since April, declining maintenance and remodel activity has slowed. While one month of increasing activity is not a trend, it may signify the start of a stabilizing in the housing stock. This is the leveling off we expected to see after almost five years of white-hot growth. It’s still early, but if existing housing activity maintains its current pace, that’s a positive sign for the stability and health of the U.S. housing stock.”
In July, national roof maintenance activity rose 15.97% year over year and spend rose 23.48%. Month over month, roof maintenance activity increased 17.87%. The primary driver for this uptick in roof maintenance volumes is likely 2019’s heightened weather activity. Notably, a good portion of the roof maintenance activity was concentrated in the Midwest and Southeast U.S., where severe hail storms and flooding occurred this spring.
Austin, Texas-based BuildFax conducted its Housing Health Report by examining properties in the U.S. over the past six years and percentage statistics leverage the same data set across time.
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