PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT: Elizabeth England: (617) 495-7640

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The growth in home improvement spending by homeowners held steady for the second quarter of 2005. According to the Remodeling Activity Indicator (RAI) devised by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, homeowners continued to invest in the homes by spending almost $ 133 billion on home improvements and repairs over the past four quarters. Spending has increased 4.5 % since the second quarter of 2004.

The Director of the Joint Center, Nicolas P. Retsinas, remarked that, “over the past decade, remodeling spending has increased approximately 5% per year. Notwithstanding a surge in spending at the end of 2004, our recent estimates show stable growth.”

Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program of the Joint Center, commenting on the reasons behind current trend, “favorable long-term interest rates have kept home sales strong, and housing turnover traditionally is a big motivator for remodeling activity.”

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 October 20, 2005.

The Joint Center’s Policy Advisory Board and other industry sponsors support the Remodeling Futures Program. The development of the new RAI is detailed in a working paper entitled W04-4: "An Improved Method for Estimating Homeowner Improvement and Repair Activity Through the Remodeling Activity Indicator."

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 is Nicolas P. Retsinas. For more information, the website is www.jchs.havard.edu.

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