The Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) is designed to estimate national homeowner spending on improvements for the current quarter and subsequent three quarters. The indicator, measured as an annual rate-of-change of its components, provides a short-term outlook of homeowner remodeling activity and is intended to help identify future turning points in the business cycle of the home improvement industry.The LIRA is released by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University in the third week after each quarter’s closing.

The development of the LIRA is detailed in N07-1: Developing a Leading Indicator for the Remodeling Industry.

In July 2008, the LIRA was re-benchmarked due to changes in the underlying reference series. These changes are explained in N08-1: Addendum to Research Note N07-1: Re-Benchmarking the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity.