The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA), released on April 17, 2025, projects a 2.5% year-over-year increase in homeowner spending on renovations and repairs, reaching a record $526 billion by the first quarter of 2026. This modest growth follows a period of decline after the pandemic’s peak expenditures, with recent upticks in existing home sales contributing to the anticipated steady rise in remodeling activities.
Despite supportive factors like high home values and strong economic indicators bolstering homeowner improvement spending, the report cautions that economic volatility—stemming from uncertainties surrounding foreign tariffs and declining consumer confidence—could temper this expected growth. The LIRA, developed in 2007 and re-benchmarked in 2016, offers a short-term outlook on national home improvement and repair spending, aiming to identify future turning points in the home improvement business cycle
