PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT: Elizabeth England: (617) 495-7640

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The year ending with the first quarter of 2003 proved to be a good one for remodeling expenditures, with gains of 6.1 percent. “As homeowners continue to see their house values grow, they are willing and able to increase their spending on home improvement projects” remarks Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Kermit Baker, director of the Center’s Remodeling Futures Program, commenting on this quarter, explains that, “a recovering economy has helped accelerate the annual growth rate for remodeling spending. As long as mortgage rates stay in favorable ranges, home sales and the resulting home improvement projects will remain strong.”

The RAI is regularly released by the Joint Center’s Remodeling Futures Program during the third week after each quarter’s closing—two quarters before the U.S. Commerce Department’s data on residential improvements and repairs is available—in order to provide industry with an accurate and timely reading of national remodeling activity levels. The next release date is July 21, 2003.

The Remodeling Futures Program is supported by the Joint Center’s Policy Advisory Board and other industry sponsors. The development of the RAI is detailed in W98-6: Development of an Indicator for the Homeowner Improvement Market.

Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies is the nation’s leading center for information and research on housing in the United States. Established in 1959, the Joint Center is a collaborative unit affiliated with the Harvard Design School and the Kennedy School of Government. The Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies since 1998 is Nicolas P. Retsinas. For more information, the website is www.jchs.havard.edu.

For more information about the Joint Center and its programs,
please call (617) 495-7908.