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Housing Perspectives

Research, trends, and perspective from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

Remodeling Spending to Tick Up Through Mid-Year 2025

After a modest downturn, homeowner expenditures for improvements and repairs are expected to trend up through the first half of 2025, according to our latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA). The LIRA projects that declines in annual spending for renovations and maintenance to owner-occupied homes will ease to just -0.5 percent through the second quarter of 2025.

Economic uncertainty and continued weakness in home sales and the sale of building materials are keeping a lid on residential remodeling, although many drivers of spending are starting to firm up again. After several years of frenzied activity during the pandemic, owners are now making upgrades and repairs to their homes at a steadier and more sustainable pace.

Annual spending on homeowner improvements and maintenance is expected to reach $466 billion through the second quarter of next year, on par with spending over the past four quarters. The home remodeling slowdown should continue to be relatively mild, with activity stabilizing just shy of last year’s peaks. 

Click image for full-size chart.

Column and line chart providing quarterly historical estimates and projections of homeowner improvement and repair spending from 2021-Q2 to 2025-Q1 as four-quarter moving sums and rates of change. Year-over-year spending growth hovered around 11–12% between 2021-Q3 and 2022-Q1 before accelerating to a peak of 17.3% in 2022-Q3 and then softening steadily down to 2.2% by 2023-Q4. Year-over-year spending is estimated to have declined in the first half of 2024 and is projected to decline at a worsening rate of -6.3% in 2024-Q4 before turning less negative through the middle of 2025. Annual spending levels are expected to decrease by just 0.5% from $468 billion in 2024-Q2 to $466 billion in 2025-Q2.

For more information, visit the LIRA page of our website.