Survey: Home improvement tracks for modest growth

Annual expenditures for improvements and maintenance to owner-occupied homes are projected to hold steady through the end of 2025 and into the middle of 2026, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The LIRA projects year-over-year spending on home renovation and repair will rise by 2.4 percent in early 2026 before dipping to 1.9 percent in Q3 of 2026.