In the Media

The Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity—a widely watched industry barometer—predicts that $458 billion will be spent over the next year remodeling and repairing owner-occupied homes. That's down from the $471 billion in the past 12 months.

Lenders attributed more than half of their rejections of older applicants to “insufficient collateral.” It's possible lenders didn’t find those homes to be worth as much as applicants had thought, because older owners occupy older homes, and might have deferred maintenance.

The share of Americans moving each year remained below 9% and Riordan Frost, senior research analyst at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, says he expects affordability issues tied to higher interest rates to limit home moves again in 2023.

But overall the share of Americans moving each year remained below 9% and Riordan Frost, senior research analyst at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, says he expects affordability issues tied to higher interest rates to limit home moves again in 2023.

Since the pandemic, the number of discrete households in the US has also spiked. This phenomenon has multiple causes.

Harvard University Remodeling Futures Program Director Carlos Martin joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss home improvement and repair spending, the need for additional investments in aging homes, and the outlook for the U.S. housing sector.

Spending on home-improvement and repair projects in the U.S. increased by an estimated 15% in 2022 to a record $567 billion, following an 11% increase in 2021, according to a report issued Thursday by Harvard’s housing studies center. Historical growth has averaged around 5%, says Ms. Will, the lead author.

Meanwhile, high-market renters — and even some in the middle tier — got a break in 2020. Those rents dropped and landlords offered incentives for new renters, noted Whitney Airgood-Obrycki of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. “In the meantime, the middle- and lower-quality apartments just continued a steady rise,” she said.

“The number one thing that I’m seeing through my position as a researcher but also through my residence in the Boston area is that people seeking to downsize often have a hard time doing it if they want to stay in their community,” said Jennifer Molinsky, project director of the Housing an Aging Society Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

The drift of the relatively affluent toward renting is making the rental market a much more competitive place, said Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a researcher at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.