Annual spending on improvements and maintenance to owner-occupied homes is expected to gradually slow through 2026, according to the latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) from the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The LIRA projects that year-over-year growth in home renovation and repair spending will be 2.9 percent early this year before easing to 1.6 percent growth by the end of the year.
“Single-family home sales and permitting activity have picked up modestly from very low levels, which should support a nominal increase in remodeling activity this year,” says Rachel Bogardus Drew, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Center. “Even with some deceleration later in the year, overall annual homeowner spending on improvements is expected to reach $522 billion by the end of 2026.”
“Remodeling trends closely track the health of the broader housing market,” says Chris Herbert, managing director of the Center. “If interest rates begin to ease, that could provide a much-needed boost to both housing construction and retail sales of building materials, which for now continue to pose significant headwinds to homeowner improvement spending.”
The Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) provides a short-term outlook of national home improvement and repair spending to owner-occupied homes. The indicator, calculated from the annual rate-of-change of its components, is designed to project the annualized 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.